


The Companion: Elevenses

by RaeOfSunshine524



Series: The Companion [1]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, it's kinda confusing at the beginning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:47:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21864718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaeOfSunshine524/pseuds/RaeOfSunshine524
Summary: I had an idea, and I hadn't read of anyone doing it before, so here it is.Please note, I'm still kinda new to the fandom, and I am far from an expert on the show
Relationships: Amy Pond/Rory Williams, The Doctor/OC
Series: The Companion [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670563
Kudos: 6





	1. The Curse

**_A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..._ **

Two souls were linked. Linked by a curse.

A girl was kidnapped from Earth.

The Doctor tried to save her.He was caught and imprisoned.

The girl decided she could get out just fine by herself. And she did. She saved herself, and the Doctor. But the aliens found them as they tried to escape. The aliens cursed the girl.

She was cursed to be with the Doctor. Forever. She was cursed to be The Companion. Never to leave his side.

The two discovered that they could feel each others pain, feel each others fear. They were linked inexplicably, in a way no two souls had been before.

The girl thought she would simply die, or die when the Doctor regenerated. She was human after all. She couldn't live forever.

But that didn't happen. She didn't die.

When he regenerated, so did she.  
  
  
  



	2. The Eleventh Hour

__**The Companion's POV  
  
**

**"I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off."**

"You say that as if you've done everything you were ever told to do." I say, jumping down from the TARDIS.

"Ah! Bobbie!" the Doctor says, turning to me. But then he frowns. "Oh yeah, forgot that happens."

"What?"

"Y'know. Change. But hey, you're not ginger anymore!" he tells me before whipping round to the little girl standing in front of us. " _You_ are though." he says to her before turning again, walking away...and slamming into a tree, which of course makes him topple over.

"You alright?" the little girl calls.

"He's fine. New body, he hasn't gotten used to steering it yet." I say, pulling him to his feet. 

"What's your name?" the girl asks.

"Well, it used to be Bobbie. And before that it was Lil. Do you want to choose a new one for me?" I ask.

"A new name?"

"Yeah. He's in no condition to." I say, pointing at the Doctor.

"Nope." he says cheerfully.

"Alright then. Emily." the girl says, "You look like an Emily."

"Too long." the Doctor says, frowning.

"Em." the girl says, "You can be called Em."

"Em it is." I smile.

Somehow, I manage to get the Doctor into the kitchen without him falling again. The little girl hands him an apple. He takes a single bite and then spits it out.

"What is that?" he asks, holding it out to the little girl.

"An apple." she tells him.

"Apples are rubbish, I hate apples." he says, handing it to me. I just take a bite out of it myself, utterly starving.

"You said you loved them." the girl says.

"No, no, I love yoghurt. Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt."

"Yoghurt? Since when?" I ask, frowning, as the little girl goes to the fridge. But my words are muffled by apple, which really isn't that bad. The girl gives me a pot of yoghurt too, and a spoon. The Doctor ignores the spoon and just downs the yoghurt in one. Then spits it all out.

"I hate yoghurt. Just stuff with bits in." he complains while I leave my apple core on the table and start on my own pot of yoghurt.

"You said it was your favourite." the little girl says.

"I did not!" the Doctor cries.

"You did." I tell him.

"Well, new mouth. New rules. It's like eating after cleaning your teeth everything tastes wro-" half way through the word 'wrong', he yells. I drop my yoghurt as pain shoots through my head.

"What's wrong with you?" the little girl asks.

"Wrong with me? It's not my fault, why can't you give me decent food? You're Scottish, fry something."

And so, a few minutes later, we have a plate of bacon each.

"Ah, love bacon. Thank you." I say to the little girl. Just as the Doctor shudders and pulls a piece of bacon out of his mouth.

"That's bacon. Are you trying to poison me?"

As the girl cooks baked beans, I pull the Doctor's plate towards myself and eating the bacon he's left behind. I cannot believe how hungry I am.

_Yeah well, new body does that sometimes. Where's your banana when you need it?_

"Have you got any candyfloss?" I ask loudly.

"Uh, no. Sorry." the girl tells me.

"Shame. Cake?"

"I don't think so."

"Ice cream?"

"Yes."

"Fantastic. I'll have some then."

"Ah, you see? Beans." the Doctor says contentedly, oblivious to the conversation I'm having with the little girl. She gives him a plateful. Within seconds it's being spat into the sink. "Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans." the girl pulls a tub of butter out of the fridge and starts spreading it on some bread. "Bread and butter. Now you're talking."

Not even a minute later, the Doctor is marching to the front door with it. I hear the plate smash.

"And stay out!"

"We've got some carrots." the girl tells him while I eat baked beans in the corner.

"Carrots? Are you insane? No, wait, hang on. I know what I need. I need I need I need...fish fingers. And custard." the Doctor says, pulling these items out of the fridge. The girl turns to me as if waiting for me to say I'd like some ham in jelly. 

"Ice-cream?" I say hopefully.

A short while later, the girl and I sit on one side of the table eating ice cream and watching the Doctor as he dips fish fingers into a bowl of custard and eating them before he lifts the bowl to his mouth. It leaves a custard moustache behind.

"Funny." the girl remarks.

"Am I? Good. Funny's good." he looks to me as if he's asking me a question. I just nod. "What's your name?" he asks the girl.

"Amelia Pond."

"Oh, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond. Like a name in a fairy tale. Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"

"No, we had to move to England. It's rubbish."

"So what about your mum and dad then? Are they upstairs?"

"They'd be awake by now, what with you yelling at bread." I say.

"Don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt." Amelia tells us.

"I used to have an aunt. She was a bit mean though." I say.

"I don't even have an aunt." the Doctor says.

"You're lucky." she says, nodding at the Doctor.

"I know. So your aunt, where is she?" he asks.

"She's out." Amelia tells him.

"And she left you on your own?" I ask.

"I'm not scared." Amelia tells me.

"Of course you're not scared, you're not scared of anything! Box falls out of sky, man falls out of box, woman follows, man eats fish custard and woman shares your ice cream. And look at you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?"

"What?"

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."

***

**'Five Minutes Later'**

***

**"White male and female, both mid-twenties, breaking and entering. Send me some back up, I've got them restrained."**

The woman speaking turns suddenly.

"Oi! You two! Sit still!" she barks.

"That...that was a cricket bat." I mumble, noting the dull ache in my head worsening as the Doctor comes round.

"Yep. Cricket bat. Cricket. Bat." he says.

"You two were breaking and entering." the woman tells us. The Doctor tries to stand, but he's hand cuffed to the radiator we're sitting against. I am too. _Damn it._

"Well, that's much better. Brand new us, whack on the head. Just what we needed." he says.

"Do you want to shut up now, I've got back up on the way." the police woman says. Though her uniform's a bit strange. A very short skirt. But then again, perhaps they've changed the uniform since the last time I was on Earth.

"Hang on, no wait, you're a police woman." the Doctor says in a rush, all in one breath and without pausing.

"And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works?"

"But what are you doing here? What happened?" I ask.

"Where's Amelia?" the Doctor asks.

"Amelia Pond?" the police woman asks.

"Yeah. Amelia, little Scottish girl, where is she? We promised her five minutes-" the Doctor starts.

"But the engines were phasing, so we must have overshot a little bit." I continue. "Where is she?"

"Has something happened to her?" the Doctor asks.

"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here for a long time." the police woman tells us.

_No. No, no, don't tell me she's dead._

"How long?" the Doctor and I ask together.

"Six months."

"What? No." I can't quite believe it.

"No, no, no. Can't be six months late, said five minutes. Promised."

The policewoman turns away again, clicking her radio on. The Doctor and I move as far forward as we possibly can, considering the fact that we are hand cuffed to a radiator.

"What happened to her?" the Doctor asks.

"What happened to Amelia?" I ask. The policewoman ignores us, speaking into her radio.

"Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up. They know something about Amelia Pond."

"I need to speak to whoever lives in this house now." the Doctor says.

"I live here." the woman tells him, turning back around.

"But you're the police!"

"Still needs a place to live, Doctor." I point out.

"Yes and I live here, you got a problem with that?" she asks.

"How many rooms?" the Doctor asks.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"On this floor." I add, trying to explain.

"How many rooms on this floor, count them for me now." the Doctor says.

"Why?" the policewoman asks.

"Because it will change your life."

"Five." she says after a moment before pointing to each door and saying, "One, two, three, four, five."

"Six." the Doctor and I say together.

***

**"What's going on? Tell me! Tell me!"**

"An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house!" the Doctor tells her.

"Any questions, they normally have questions." I say.

"Yes!" the Kissogram/policewoman says as the Doctor turns back to the TARDIS.

"Me too." he says. Then, "No, no, no, don't do that, not now!"

"Still rebuilding?" I ask calmly.

"Yes!" the Doctor shouts exasperatedly. The Tardis won't let us back in while it's still rebuilding. The Doctor starts to stroke it, as if apologising for just hitting it.

_**Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be disintegrated** _

"Come on!" the police woman says, grabbing our arms and yanking us away.

"No, wait, hang on, wait, wait, wait." the Doctor says, pulling away from the Kissogram and bounding over to the shed. "The shed. We destroyed that shed last time we were here, smashed it to pieces."

"So there's a new one. Let's go."

"But this new one's gotten old." I say, my hand resting against the door.

"At least ten years old." the Doctor says before smelling it and correcting himself, "Twelve years."

"Twelve years late?" I ask.

"Not six months, twelve years."

"He's coming." the Kissogram says quickly, desperately, as we walk towards her.

"Why did you say six months?" I ask.

"We've got to go."

"This matters, this is important. Why did you say six months?" the Doctor asks.

"Well why did you say five minutes?" the Kissogram roars, something in her finally breaking.

"What?" the Doctor and I ask together. Our voices are quiet with disbelief.

"Come on." the Kissogram says.

"What?" we ask again.

"Come on!" she shouts.

"What?" we ask one last time. She grabs us again and starts to drag us away as we hear the voice again.

**_Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be disintegrated_ **

The three of us run until the Doctor stops and turns around.

"You're Amelia." he says.

"You're late." she says.

"You're Amelia Pond." I say. "You're the little girl."

"I'm Amelia and you're late."

"What happened?" the Doctor asks.

"Twelve years."

"You hit us with a cricket bat!" I cry.

"Twelve years!"

"A cricket bat!" the Doctor says.

"Twelve years and four psychiatrists."

"Four?" I repeat.

"I kept biting them."

"Why?"

"They said you weren't real."

"But...but we are real. You gave me my name, Amelia. You gave me my name!"

"Yeah, well, you try explaining people with no names falling out of a police box from the sky and eating fish fingers and custard!"

"That was him!" I remind her, pointing at the Doctor. "I had ice cream with you!"

Amelia's about to say something else when we hear it again.

**_Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be disintegrated_ **

***

**"Hello, laptop, give me!"**

"No, no, no, no," Jeff starts as the Doctor and I lunge for the laptop he's holding. "Hang on!"

"It's fine." the Doctor says, pulling it out of his hands. "Give it here." I sit on the bed as Jeff's face crumples. I look at the screen.

"Crikey." I say.

"Blimey." the Doctor says.

"Get a girlfriend, Jeff." we say together. The door opens.

"Gran." Jeff says.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"Sun's gone wibbly so right now, somewhere, there's going to be a big old video conference call." the Doctor tells her.

"All the big brain experts in the world panicking." I take over the explaining so the Doctor can look at what he's typing properly. "And they need a hand. Him." I say, nodding at the Doctor.

"Me." he says, holding up a hand.

"Hey, there they are." I say, going up onto my knees so I can see over the Doctor's shoulder.

"NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore." the Doctor lists.

"Oh, I like Patrick Moore." Jeff's Gran says.

"I'll get you his number." the Doctor offers, "But watch him, he's a devil."

"You can't just hack in on a call." Jeff says from over the Doctor's other shoulder.

"He just did." I tell him. As people start appearing on the screen and voices start babbling, the Doctor holds up his psychic paper for a moment before saying,

"Hello. I know you should switch me off, but before you do you should watch this." the Doctor says before beginning to type again. "Fermat's Theorem, the proof, and I mean the real one, never seen before. Poor old Fermat, got killed in a duel before he could write it down. My fault, I slept in. Oh, and here's an oldie but a goodie - why electrons have mass. And a personal favourite of mine, faster-than-light travel with two diagrams and a joke. Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm a genius." the Doctor talks in a rush, babbling on. But now he slows down a little. "Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get."

"Hi. We're help." I say, leaning further over his shoulder so my head is level with his.

"Fellas, pay attention."

"Sir, what are you doing?" one of the voices ask as the Doctor works on Rory's phone.

"I'm writing a computer virus. Very clever, super fast-"

"Slightly alive." I cut in.

"You weren't meant to say that."

"But I did."

"Anyway, why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind, you'll find out. Okay, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish, whatever you've got. Any questions?"

"Who are you, my dear?" Patrick Moore asks.

"None of your business." I tell him.

"Patrick, behave." the Doctor says.

"What does this virus do?" someone else asks.

"It's a reset command, that's all. It resets counters, it gets in the wifi and resets every counter it can find. Anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time. But, yeah, I could be lying, why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain." there's a pause. I know he doesn't mean me. For a start, I'm not a man. "Jeff, you're my best man." the Doctor whispers.

"You what?" Jeff whispers back.

"Listen to me. In ten minutes, you're going to be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want. But first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff. Right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world."

"Why me?"

"It's your bedroom." I say simply.

***

 **"Not late, are we?"** I ask, landing lightly on the floor beside Amy and Rory.

"No, three minutes to go." the Doctor says, "So still time."

"Time for what, Time Lord?" Prisoner Zero asks. It's impersonating a woman and two little girls now.

"Take the disguise off. They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies."

"The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire."

"Hey, a dramatic alien. That's new." I say drily.

"You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave." the Doctor says.

"I did not open the crack." Prisoner Zero says.

"Somebody did."

"The cracks in the skin of the universe. Don't you know where they came from? You don't, do you?" Prisoner Zero's voice changes suddenly to that of a little girl's. "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know. And look, neither does his little pet."

"I am not a pet!" I hiss.

"Down, Emmie." the Doctor says.

"Shut up."

"Doesn't know, doesn't know." Prisoner Zero says in a sing-song voice. The clock changes. _11:50_. Prisoner Zero's voice becomes a woman's again. "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall. And you, little Lillian Tate. You shall be no more."

"Fine with me." I say. Prisoner Zero almost laughs.

"But you don't know what your death will bring, do you?"

I hear the clock click again.

"And we're off!" the Doctor proclaims. "Look at that!" he says. "Look at that!" he says again, pointing at the clock. Prisoner Zero turns to look at it. _0:00_ "Yeah, I know, just a clock, whatever. But do you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out. And do you know what the word is?"

"Zero." I say.

"Exactly, Emmie. Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute?"

"Hardly thirty seconds." I say, moving to stand beside the Doctor.

"The source, by the way, is right here." the Doctor says, holding up Rory's phone. Bright light suddenly spills into the room.

"And there they are!" I say.

"The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me." Prisoner Zero says.

"Oh, but this is the clever bit, isn't it Doctor?"

"Indeed it is, Emmie, my favourite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of?"

"Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take."

"Oh, and being uploaded right now."

Prisoners Zero's eyes flicker from the Doctor to me and back again as we speak.

"And the final score is, no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare. Who da man?" the Doctor asks proudly. There's silence, wherein I pull a face at him. "Oh, I'm never saying that again. Fine."

***

 **"So this was a good idea, was it?"** Amy asks. "They were leaving." I don't think Amy and Rory are very happy the Doctor called the Atraxi back.

"Leaving is good. Never coming back is better." the Doctor tells her. "Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now!" he shouts to the giant eyeball hovering in the sky before adding, more quietly, "Emmie, here, please."

"Never anywhere else." I say from where I stand beside him. The giant eyeball zooms down and looks at the Doctor.

"You are not of this world." it says after scanning the Doctor.

"No, but I've put a lot of work into it." the Doctor replies. The eye scans me.

"You are of this world."

"Yes. Yes I am." I say. The Doctor holds up one of the many ties that are slung around his neck.

"What do you think?" he asks.

"Is this world important?" the eyeball asks, ignoring his question.

"Important? What's that mean, important? Six billion people live here, is that important? Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" the eyeball doesn't answer. "Well, come on, you're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?" the Doctor asks again. A holographic ball appears in front of the eye. Images flicker through it. Of humans, of buildings. Of Earth.

"No." the eyeball answers.

"Are the people of this world guilty of any crime by the law of the Atraxi?"

"No."

"One more question. Just one. Is this world protected?" the Doctor asks. The images in the ball change to Cybermen, Daleks, aliens of all shapes and sizes. These images flicker as the Doctor adds, "Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh there have been so many of you. And what you've got to ask is..? Emmie, would you help him?"

"Gladly. What you should be asking is, what happened to them?" as I speak, faces fill the ball. Most of them I've never seen before, but I know what they are. They are the faces of the Doctor. As we step through the holographic ball together, it disappears.

"Hello. I'm the Doctor."

"And I'm the Companion."

"Basically...run."


	3. The Beast Below

**"One little girl crying. So?"** Amy asks.

"Crying silently." the Doctor points out.

"Children cry loudly if they're hurt, if they're scared, when they want attention." Emmie explains. 

"When they cry silently it's cause they just can't stop. Any parent knows that." the Doctor adds. Emmie's finger hooks itself onto a slim chain around her neck, staring at the little girl.

"Are you a parent?" Amy asks.

"Hundreds of parents are walking past and none of them are stopping to help her, they don't even seem to see her, there's got to be a reason for that. No parent can see a crying child and ignore them like that unless there's a reason." Emmie says.

"Are you a parent?" Amy repeats, directing her words at Emmie now.

"No one's asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about." the Doctor says, "Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows - whatever they're afraid of - it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere."

"Police state." Emmie finishes as the little girl stands up and moves away from the bench, disappearing into the crowd within seconds.

"Where'd she go?" Amy asks.

"Deck 207, Apple Sesame Block, Dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner." the Doctor says before producing a small notebook from a pocket. "Oh! This fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her."

"The fourth time you accidentally bumped into her." Emmie corrects.

"Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere."

"But they're just things." Amy says.

"Look at the place. Everything is filthy, battered, full of dust. Everything but those booths, Amy. Not a single fingerprint on the glass, not a single shoeprint within two feet of them." Emmie says, pointing at the mannequin-type things in the glass booths all around them.

"Ask Mandy, 'Why is everyone so afraid of the things in the booths.'" the Doctor tells Amy.

"No. Hang on - what do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed! Why me, why not Emmie?" Amy asks, gesturing at her nightie.

"It's this or Leadworth." the Doctor tells her. "What do you think? What will Amy Pond choose?" he asks, poking her between each of the last four words. Amy seems to struggle to keep her face straight, then turns her head away from the Doctor, crossing her arms. The Doctor laughs. "Gotcha! Meet me back here in half an hour."

"What are you going to do?" Amy asks, a little moodily.

"What I always do." he tells her, imitating her tone. "Stay out of trouble." he adds before standing up and bouncing up and over the bench.

"Badly." Emmie adds before walking, calmly, round the bench to follow the Doctor. They both stop and turn when Amy shouts after them,

"So it this how it works? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets unless there's children crying?"

The Doctor and Emmie answer together, both giving Amy rather mischievous smiles.

"Yes."

***

** Emmie **

**"Yeah, your basic memory wipe job, must have erased about twenty minutes."** the Doctor says, his sonic screwdriver aimed at the light above the chair he is standing on.

"But why would I choose to forget?" Amy asks.

"Cause everyone does." the little girl called Mandy tells her. "Everyone chooses the 'forget' button."

"Did you?" the Doctor asks.

"I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm twelve." Mandy tells him, "Any time after you're sixteen you're allowed to see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years."

"And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned. Democracy in action." the Doctor says before moving back over to the screens, which haven't changed since we got here.

"How do you not know about this? Are you Scottish too?" Mandy asks.

"Nah."

"You certainly used to sound Scottish." I remark.

"Yeah, well, so did you. I'm way worse than Scottish, I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me." he says, ignoring me.

"It played for me." Amy says.

"The difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human."

"Why not?"

"Because he's not human." I tell her. I mean, he has to tell her sooner or later. Might as well get it over with now.

"But he looks human."

"No, you look Time Lord, we came first." the Doctor tells her.

"So there are other Time Lords, yeah?" Amy asks. I look at the Doctor, wondering if I should say something, deflect the question. 

"No." he says after a moment, "There were, but there aren't...Just me now. Long story, there was a bad day, bad stuff happened. And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever."

"Doctor, the video won't play for me either." I say, more to distract Amy from asking any more questions.

"It's probably just because I'm standing here." he says before moving out of the way. "You have a go." I stand in front of the screens. Nothing happens.

"It's still not doing anything." I tell him. He hesitates for a split second before speaking, stumbling over his words.

"Ah, well, it, uh...it must just have glitched out or-"

"They never break." Mandy tells him matter-of-factly.

"Or, um-" he continues speaking over her until I turn and grab his screwdriver from him. "Oi, Emmie! You don't know how to use that!"

"Oh please, I've had decades to work out all your gadgets." I say before pointing it at Amy. Holographic words appear before me for my eyes only. The others can't see them.

_Amelia Jessica Pond. 100% Human_

I point it at the Doctor.

_The Doctor. 100%_ _Gallifreyan_ _. Time Lord._

I then hold out my arm and aim the sonic at it. Words appear in front of me. Words that should confirm that I'm one hundred percent human.

_Lillian Tate. Roberta Tate. Emily Tate._

_62% Human_

_38%_ _Gallifreyan_ _. Time Lord_

I stare at the air long after the words have dissolved.

Time Lord. _Time Lord?_

_What the fu-_

"I'll be needing that back, Emmie." the Doctor says, plucking his screwdriver from my hand. I don't react. "You alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, fine. Yeah, it, uh. Must have glitched or something." I stumble over my words, but neither of them seem to notice. Mandy does. I know she does by the way she looks at me. She opens her mouth, but doesn't get a chance to say anything before the Doctor grabs my hand and pulls me towards him. His other hand is high in the air.

"Good. Cause we're going to bring down the government." he says. Then he slams his hand down on the _Forget_ button.

***

 **"There's nothing broken, no sign of concussion-"** the Doctor starts.

"And yes, you are covered in sick." I finish.

"Where are we?" Amy asks.

"Overspill pipe, at a guess." the Doctor tells her.

"Oh, God, it stinks."

"That's not the pipe." I tell her. 

"Oh." Amy lifts her arm and smells herself, and her face changes completely. "Whoo! Can we get out?"

"One way out. One condition." I say as the Doctor moves aside so Amy can see the _Forget_ button embedded in the wall.

"We forget everything we saw." he says as the button lights up. "Look familiar?" he asks. "That's the carrot." he adds, overhead lights switching on all the way down the pipe. I turn to see two booths at the other end.

"There's the stick." I say, walking towards them. I can hear the Doctor behind me, catching up with me almost immediately.

"There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?" he asks. The heads of the things in the booths turn. They are no longer smiling. "No, that's not going to work on me, so come on. Big old beast below decks and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?" he asks. The faces turn again. The eyes are red now, their mouths turned down exaggeratedly. But they're not scary. They're not scaring me, and they're not scaring the Doctor. We stand in front of a booth each as the heads stop rotating. "Oh, stop it."

"We're not leaving and we're not forgetting." I tell the things.

"What are you going to do about it, stick out your tongues? Huh?" the Doctor asks. The front of the booths swing open and the things step out.

"You had to ask, didn't you?"

"I always do."

"Doctor? Em?" Amy asks. I hear footsteps behind me. I look over my shoulder quickly and then shove Amy out the way of the woman walking towards us, past us, shooting the things until they fall to the floor. She twirls the gun around her finger before sticking it back in the holster.

"Look who it is." the Doctor says, smiling.

"I like being able to see your face." I say.

"You must be Amy. Liz." the woman says, walking towards Amy, holding out her hand. "Liz 10."

"Hi." Amy says, a little taken aback, shaking her hand. Liz 10 takes her hand away quickly and wipes it on the shoulder of her cloak. Amy, the Doctor and I are, unfortunately, still covered in vomit.

"Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick." Liz 10 says before moving forward again. "You know Mandy, yeah?" she asks, her arm around Mandy, who has appeared out of seemingly nowhere. "She's very brave."

"Yes she is." I say, smiling at the little girl.

"How did you find us?" the Doctor asks.

"Stuck my gizmo on you." Liz 10 says, throwing a palm-sized device to the Doctor, "Been listening in, nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?"

"You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it." the Doctor says simply.

"No. Never forgot, never voted. Not technically a British subject."

"Then who and what are you, and how do you know us?" the Doctor asks, waving a finger in the space between me and him.

"You two are hard to miss. Mysterious strangers. You, MO consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot," Liz 10 says, looking at the Doctor, who self-consciously rubs his hair with his hand, "And you, his babysitter, his most trusted companion, how have you put up with him for so long?" she asks, looking at me now.

"Well, you know everything else. I'll leave that bit a mystery." I tell her.

"I've been brought up on stories about you. My whole family have."

"Your family?" the Doctor asks. Liz 10 looks like she's about to explain, but she hears the whirring noise I hear. We turn to look at the things on the floor.

"They're repairing. Doesn't take them long." she says, "Let's move." we follow her out. "The Doctor, old drinking buddy of Henry XII and the Companion, the wife that got away. Tea and scones with Liz 2. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, Doctor, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day." Liz 10 talks fast as she walks, not turning her head to speak to us directly as we scurry after her. "And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy."

"Liz 10!" I say, realising who she is. The Doctor has said it at the same time as me. He's figured it out too.

"Liz 10, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth. And down!" Liz 10 yells the last part, and I duck, grabbing Mandy's arm to pull her down with me. Liz 10 shoots over our heads at the two booth-things behind us. She smiles, laughing a little as they fall. She lets her arms fall, her guns swinging at her sides. "I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule."

***

 **"What's that?"** Liz 10 asks. To me, it's fairly obvious. And disgusting. Horrifying.

"Well, like I say. Depends on the angle." the Doctor says, "It's either the exposed pain centre of big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly-"

"Or?"

"Or it's the gas pedal, the accelerator. Starship UK's go-faster button." the Doctor is getting angrier with every word, and I think I'm the only one that can tell. I move around the railing that surrounds the hole exposing the creature's brain, trying to get closer to the Doctor.

"I don't understand." Liz 10 says.

"Don't you?" the Doctor asks. He darts over to Liz 10 just as I reach a hand out to him. "Try, go on. The spaceship that could never fly, no vibration on deck. This creature - this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading - it's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving."

Everyone can see his anger clearly now. Liz 10's face has fallen. She stares at the brain as it is zapped.

"Doctor-" I start, but he's already moving.

"Tell you what," he pulls the great off one of the holes in the ground, and a tentacle bursts out immediately. "Normally, it's above the range of human hearing. This is the sound none of you wanted to hear."

"Doctor!"

I can't stop him. I'm too far away. The Doctor aims his screwdriver at the tentacle. We are the only two who don't flinch at the terrible shrieking noise that comes from it. Liz 10's face is contorting in horror. I reach up and take hold of the Doctor's arm.

"Doctor. Doctor, that's enough." I tell him. He looks at me, still clearly very angry. I just turn him to face me, pulling the screwdriver from his hand. "Enough." I tell him one more time. I give him Liz 10's mask, give him something else to think about.

"Who did this?" Liz 10 asks the man with the glasses, Hawthorne.

"We act on instructions from the highest authority." he tells her.

"I am the highest authority. The creature will be released, now." no one moves. "I said now! Is anyone listening to me?"

"Liz. Your mask." the Doctor says.

"What about my mask?" she asks. He throws it to her over the exposed brain.

"Look at it. It's old. At least 200 years old, I'd say." 

"Yeah, it's an antique, so?" 

"Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over 200 years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not 50. Nearer 300. And it's been a long old reign." 

"Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years."

"Ten years. The same ten years, over and over again, leading you..." the Doctor says, moving again, "Here." a chair sits in front of a single screen. Two buttons. _Forget_ and _Abdicate._ Liz 10 looks to Hawthorne.

"What have you done?" she asks.

"Not him, Liz." I tell her. "He's following orders."

"We all are. The Winders, the Smilers." Hawthorne says before flicking a switch, and a recording starts. Liz 10 is on the screen, talking.

"If you are watching this....If I am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower of London." Liz 10 sits in the chair as her past self speaks, 

"The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale." a picture appears on the screen, a picture of the Star Whale, "Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart. The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us, and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it. We built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the "forget" button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision."

"I voted for this? Why would I do that?" Amy asks in a whisper.

"Because you knew if we stayed here I'd be faced with an impossible choice." the Doctor tells her.

"Humanity or the alien." I mumble.

"Exactly. Amy, you took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong. You don't ever get to decide what I get to know." the Doctor tells Amy, a finger pointed at her face.

"I don't even remember doing it." she tells him defensively.

"You did it, that's what counts." he says sharply.

"I'm...I'm sorry."

"I don't care. When I'm done here, you're going home." he walks off before I can catch him.

"Em. Em, what do I..." Amy starts.

"You don't do anything." I tell her, turning to face her. "Look, Amy, something you need to know about the Doctor is that he doesn't like to be saved. He doesn't like other people making decisions for him, trust me, I know. Just...just hang back for a minute, alright?" I tell her. Amy looks doubtful, but she nods. So I leave her and move to stand beside the Doctor instead. "Doctor. Doctor, she made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, she doesn't even remember doing it."

"Yeah, I know." he says it without looking at me, like he wants me to stop talking to him. Then he looks up at me for a split second. "She's only human."

She is. Amy is. He thinks I am too. I should tell him. I should really tell him. But now is not the time.

"What are you doing?" Liz 10 asks.

"The worst thing I'll ever do." he tells her, "I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly but the whale won't feel it."

"That'll be like killing it." Amy says.

"Look, three options: One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, cause I won't be the Doctor anymore."

"There must be something we can do, some other way." Liz 10 says.

"There isn't." I say, my voice quiet and sad as I watch the Doctor.

"Nobody talk to me." the Doctor's voice is quiet too. But then he explodes, right in my face. "Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" I flinch as he shouts, my eyes stinging with unshed tears. He never shouts at me. Never. Never in anger.

_Nobody human._

But I'm not. Not anymore.

"Doctor-"

"Emmie, did you hear me? I told you to shut up!"

I flinch again, more violently. I feel a tear run onto my nose.

"I heard you." I force out as the zaps of electricity behind me grow louder. Something in the Doctor's face changes. For a split second, he looks like he wants to apologise. But then he turns back and starts pulling at wires. Amy pulls at my hand. She takes me to a wall and slides down it. I follow, Mandy sitting between us as we watch the Doctor prepare for murder. Mandy stands up suddenly and runs to a little boy that's entered the room. Her friend, the one she'd been crying about. A tentacle rises out of a hole behind her, but it doesn't attack. It taps her lightly on the shoulder. Mandy turns, and she stroke it gently, as if it were a dog.

_The last of its kind_

_Our children screamed_

_And then it came, like a miracle_

I know by the look on Amy's face that she has realised something, and I hope it's the same thing as I now know. She's on her feet before I am, moving towards the Doctor.

"Doctor, stop." she tells him. He keeps working.

"Doctor! Doctor, stop it, now." I tell him. Amy grabs Liz 10.

"Sorry, your Majesty. Gonna need a hand." she tells her, pulling Liz 10 to the screen.

"No, no!" the Doctor shouts, trying to get to them, but I step in his way. "Emmie!" Amy pushes Liz 10's hand down on the _Abdicate_ button. She looks at me, and we nod at each other. The zapping stops. And the roaring and crashing starts. "Amy, Emmie. What have you done?" the Doctor asks.

"Nothing at all." Amy tells him.

"How's the speed, Hawthorne?" I ask.

"We...we've increased speed." Hawthorne says, not quite able to believe it.

"Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot, gotta help." Amy says.

"It's still here?" Liz 10 asks. "I don't understand."

"You never trapped the Star Whale. You never needed to torture it. It came voluntarily." I tell her.

"Emmie, what-" the Doctor starts.

"It came because it heard your children. Heard the screaming and crying." I add.

"What if you were really old and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead, no future. What couldn't you do then?" Amy asks. "If you were that old, and that kind," she turns to look at the Doctor, "And the very last of your kind. You couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."

***

I stand at the wall of windows, staring out at the grey-green space.

"I know. I know what you're going to say." the Doctor says.

"I'm going to say it anyway." I tell him.

"I know you are."

"You saw yourself in the Star Whale, didn't you?" I ask, turning my head to look at him instead of space. "I mean, how couldn't you? The last of its species, its race. So lonely and old-"

"And kind? Emmie, I-"

"You are kind. So very kind." I tell him softly. "You know that, don't you?" I ask because I know he doesn't think himself kind. I ask because I know he won't answer.

"Yes, well, being the last of my kind, I don't want the same thing to happen to anyone else." the Doctor says when the silence has stretched on too long. I could tell him now. But how could I?

_Hey, turns out I'm kinda Time Lord._

_Surprise, you're not the last one!_

_I'm some kind of mutant and I have no idea how?_

I wouldn't know where to start. I wouldn't know how to begin explaining it. And how could I explain it, I don't know what's going on. I reach out and take the Doctor's hand.

"Don't be sad, Doctor. You're not alone." I tell him.

"I'm not sad." he says automatically, and I smile a little.

"You forget I'm cursed, Doctor. I feel what you feel." I remind him. And I do. I feel every negative emotion he feels. Sadness, anger, fear. Another aspect of the curse that ties us together.

"I never forget you're cursed, Emmie. Why are you scared?" he asks. Of course he knows I'm scared. The curse isn't a one-way street. He feels my negativity as I feel his. He can feel that I'm scared about those numbers.

_62% Human_

_38% Gallifreyan. Time Lord_

I can't tell him. Not yet. Not until I know more.


	4. Victory Of The Daleks

**They stand on the roof, sandbags all around them.** Professor Bracewell has a pair of binoculars, and is staring at the planes in the distance.

"Ready Bracewell?" Churchill calls from behind them.

"Aye-aye, sir!" Bracewell shouts back, taking one hand off his binoculars to give them a thumbs up. "On my order...Fire!" several beams of light shoot out from within the maze of sandbags, every single on of them hitting a plane dead-on. But the sound. The sound...

"What's that?" Amy asks as Bracewell turns to grin at them.

"That wasn't human, Doctor. No way that was human, it sounded like-"

"I know, Emmie." the Doctor interrupts Emmie before she can say it. He bounds up to Bracewell. "Show me! Show me what that was!"

"Em-" Amy starts, but Emmie is already gone, following the Doctor.

"Our new secret weapon!" Churchill tells them proudly. Emmie can feel a warm sensation in her chest. And not a good one. It's part of the curse, feeling the Doctor's fear. And this is his fear, this warmth. It only increases as Churchill's secret weapon wheels out of the sandbags. "What do you think? Quite something, eh?"

"What is that thing doing here?" Emmie asks quietly. Bracewell hears her.

"That thing? I made that!" he exclaims as the Doctor creeps towards it and asks Emmie's question,

"What are you doing here?"

 ** _I am your soldier._** the Dalek replies.

"What?"

**_I am your soldier._ **

"Stop this. Stop it now. You know who I am, you always know."

**_Your identity is unknown._ **

"Stop it." Emmie says, stepping forward. "Drop it. Why are you here?" she asks sharply. Its 'head' turns to look at her.

**_Your identity is unknown._ **

"Shut up. Shut up, this isn't funny."

"Perhaps I can clarify things here, this is one of my Ironsides." Bracewell tells us.

"Your what?" the Doctor asks.

 _"Yours?"_ Emmie asks, incredulous.

"You will help the Allied cause in any way that you can?" Bracewell asks the Dalek.

 ** _Yes._** it answers.

"Until the Germans have been utterly smashed?"

**_Yes._ **

"And what is your ultimate aim?" Bracewell asks. Emmie can feel my chest growing warmer, the Doctor's fear growing. She knows the answer to this question. The Dalek's ultimate aim is to kill the Doctor. Or at least to kill her. She dies, the Doctor dies. But that's part of the curse to be explained another day.

 ** _To win the war!_ **is what the Dalek says.

***

**"Doctor, what are they doing here? What are they planning?"**

"I dunno, but they're up to something." the Doctor tells Emmie.

"But what?" she wonders aloud.

"Well, let's just ask them." Amy says pushing herself off the wall to stand in front of the nearest Dalek.

"Amy. Amelia!" she ignores the Doctor and taps the Dalek.

 ** _Can I be of assistance?_** it asks. The Doctor intends to listen to what it has to say, to watch so it can't hurt Amy, but he is suddenly distracted as Emmie starts shaking violently beside him, almost convulsively.

"Emmie? Emily?" she can't seem to hear him. Her eyes are open, but she's not looking at him. Screwdriver out in a second, the Doctor aims it at her. But nothing comes up. It says that nothing's wrong with her. "Emmie!" the Doctor takes her face in his hand to try and stop her head jerking about so much. "Emmie Tate, can you hear me?"

"See, my friends seem to think you're dangerous." Amy says to the Dalek, not hearing the Doctor behind her, "And that you're an alien. That true?"

**_I am your soldier._ **

"Yeah, got that bit. Love a squaddie. What else though?"

 ** _Please excuse me. I have duties to perform._** the Dalek tells her before turning and wheeling away.

Screams. There are screams filling Emmie's head. She can't see anything, can't feel the Doctor's hands on her face. She can feel fire, so close it almost burns. She hears screams. Mothers calling out to dying children. Fathers who know their efforts to protect their families are useless. And loud, robotic voices,

**_Ex-ter-min-ate!_ **

Her head bounces up suddenly, her eyes opening. When she sees the concern on the Doctor's face she frowns.

"What's wrong? Why are you...holding me like that?" she asks, looking at his hands either side of her face.

"What was that? Emmie, what did you just do?"

"What? I just zoned out for a minute. Sorry." Emmie says, pulling herself out of the Doctor's grip.

"No, what..." the Doctor starts. He sees the genuine confusion on her face. She has no idea what's just happened. Whatever's happened, she must have forgotten about it. But how? What on Earth was it?

"Doctor? Em, what's wrong?" Amy asks, returning from her very brief conversation with the Dalek.

"Nothing." the Doctor mumbles, stepping away from Emmie and towards Churchill. "Nothing."

***

 **"Alright, Prof? The PM's been filling me in."** the Doctor says as he, Amy and Emmie walk into where Bracewell is working. A Dalek is making tea in the corner. "Amazing things, these Ironsides of yours. Amazing. You must be very proud of them." he says. He's still watching Emmie carefully. She's acting as if her fit never happened. She doesn't seem to know that it happened at all.

"Just doing my bit." Bracewell says.

"Not bad for a Paisley boy." Amy remarks, and Bracewell laughs a little.

"Yes, I though I detected a familiar cadence, my dear."

"How did you do it, come up with the idea?" the Doctor asks quickly, flipping through a book full of notes.

"How does the muse of invention come to anyone?"

"If you could give us a straight answer just once, it would be nice." Emmie says. "Honestly, scientists." she adds in a mutter, "Never get an answer, there always has to be a song and dance and refreshments after act two." Amy gives a small snort at this. She'd have expected Emmie to be used to answers like this, what with being stuck with the Doctor for so long.

"But you get a lot of these clever notions, do you?" the Doctor asks.

"Well, ideas just seem to teem from my head! Wonderful things! Like let me show you. Some musings on the potential of hypersonic flight. Gravity bubbles that could sustain life outside of the terrestrial atmosphere! Came to me in the bath!" as he speaks, Bracewell hands the Doctor notebooks about these ideas, which the Doctor then passes to Emmie, who passes them to Amy, who just puts them back on the table they came from.

"And are these your ideas or theirs?" Emmie asks casually.

"No, no, no, no, no, dear, these robots are entirely under my control." 

"Or are you under theirs?" Emmie asks, too quietly for anyone but the Doctor to hear her.

"They are," Bracewell breaks off to take a cup of tea from his Dalek and thank it, "the prefect servant and the perfect warrior."

"I don't know what you're up to, Professor, but whatever they've promised, you cannot trust them!" the Doctor tells him, "Call them what you like, the Daleks are death."

"Yes, Doctor. Death to our enemies!" Winston Churchill announces as he walks in, another Dalek following him, "Death to the forces of darkness, and death to the Third Reich!"

"Yes, Winston, and death to everyone else too." 

Emmie can feel the Doctor's anger, hot in her head as she looks to Amy.

 ** _Would you care for some tea?_** a Dalek asks. And the Doctor explodes, hitting the tray from its...arm?

"Stop this! What are you doing here, what do you want!"

**_We seek only to help you._ **

"We seek to help my arse." Emmie hisses, her own hands curling into fists. She feels Amy's hand around her wrist and looks at her, but Amy's watching the Doctor as he asks, 

"To do what?"

**_To win the war._ **

"Really? Which war?"

**_I do not understand_.**

"This war, against the Nazis? Or your war? The war against the rest of the universe? The war against all life-forms that are not Dalek?" the Doctor's voice had calmed down but now it rises with every question.

**_I do not understand. I am your soldier._ **

"Oh yeah? Okay." the Doctor turns and, which a little difficulty, lifts up the biggest spanner I have ever seen. "Okay, soldier. Defend yourself." is all he says before he starts whacking the Dalek with it.

**_You do not require tea?_ **

Amy is take aback and slightly horror-struck. Emmie is not so surprised. But Bracewell is beside himself.

"Stop it! Prime Minister, please!"

"Doctor, please, these machines are precious!" Churchill calls out to the Doctor, but does little else. Emmie can see that he has gone too far.

"Doctor. Doctor, come on-" she starts, reaching forwards. His elbow lands in her nose. "Yow!"

"Come on then! Fight back, I know you want to!" the Doctor's shouting at the Dalek, trying to get it to react by grabbing its eyestalk and turning it.

"I must protest!" Bracewell shouts.

"Well you're all doing a marvellous job of stopping him." Emmie says, voice distorted by the fact that she's pinching the bridge of her nose, eyes stinging. "Doctor!" she lets go of her nose and lunges for him, managing to grab him and pull him away from the Dalek.

"What are you waiting for! You want to kill me!" he shouts at the Dalek.

"You've already gotten one of us injured, Doctor, don't get us killed." Emmie tells him. "Amy, the spanner."

**_Please desist from striking me. I am your soldier._ **

Amy hasn't managed to take the spanner. The Doctor breaks free from Emmie and whacks the Dalek again, and again, and again.

"You are my enemy! And I am yours!" his voice is suddenly quiet again, Emmie rubbing a hand at her chest. It hurts, and she's not sure why. "You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again, I've defeated you."

"Doctor, stop. Stop now!" Emmie shouts. She can feel blood dripping from her nose.

"I sent you back into the void! I saved the whole of reality from you!"

"Doctor, no!"

"I am the Doctor! And you are the Daleks!" the Doctor yells, kicking the Dalek so it careens backwards. There is a moment. And then its head turns back to face them.

 ** _Correct. Review testimony._** the Dalek says, before playing back what the Doctor had just said, ** _'I am the Doctor! And you are the Daleks!'_**

"Testimony. What are you talking about, testimony?" the Doctor asks as the two Daleks swivel their heads so their eyestalks are almost touching.

**_Transmitting testimony now._ **

"Transmit what, where?"

"Where'd you think?" Emmie asks, "Their ship." she answers her own question. The Doctor turns his head to look at her, face falling when he sees her bleeding nose. Had he done that? Yes, he had, he realises. Emmie pulls her sleeve over her hand to dab at her nose as she glares at him.

**_Testimony accepted._ **

"Get back, all over you!" the Doctor says quickly, making sure both Amy and Emmie are behind him.

"Marines! Marines, get in here!" Churchill orders. Two soldiers run in, and are immediately electrocuted by the Daleks. Amy gasps.

"Stop it! Stop it, please, what are you doing?" Bracewell shouts, "You are my Ironsides!"

**_We are the Daleks!_ **

"But I created you!"

 ** _No!_ ** the Daleks fires at his hand, which is shoot off. Sparks fly out of it, revealing wires instead of bones. ** _We created you!_**

Amy pushes herself as far away as she can get, letting Emmie step in front of her. Emmie, for her part, is thinking, _Probably not the best time to say it, but...I told you so._

 ** _Victory! Victory! Victory!_ **and with that, the Daleks disappear.

"What just happened, Doctor?" Amy asks.

"I wanted to know what they wanted." the Doctor starts. Emmie takes her sleeve away from her nose, the blue fabric now soaked in red.

"It's always the same, Doctor, you said yourself. They want you. Us. And you told them exactly where we are." she says. The Doctor turns and darts away. Amy pokes Emmie.

"What'd you have to say that for?" she hisses.

"Because I'm right! And it's what he was going to say anyway, I just said it first." Emmie tells her before chasing after the Doctor.

"Always with the running." Amy mutters. And then she runs after them. "What do we do?" she asks when she catches up with the other two, "Is this what we do now, chase after them?"

"This is what I do. It's dangerous, so wait here." the Doctor tells her.

"What, so you mean I've got to stay safe down here in the middle of the London Blitz?"

"Safe as it gets around me." he says before turning to the TARDIS. Emmie watches after him, and Amy watches her. Emmie turns and looks at Amy.

"He still doesn't say 'we.'" she says simply before bouncing in after him.

"Emmie! No, out!" the Doctor exclaims.

"If you think I'm leaving you alone with the Daleks you are a very stupid old man." Emmie tells him, reaching for a lever and shoving it upwards. The Doctor just sighs and moves to stand beside her, pointing at the screen in front of them.

"Well, there's out target." he tells her.

"Don't miss, yeah?"

For a moment, no one says anything. Then the Doctor pulls out his sonic.

"I hurt you. Let me fix it." he says, and Emmie turns. The Doctor takes hold of her chin, tips her head back a little, and starts working on her nose. "Sorry."

"It's fine. It hurts you too."

"Yes, it does." there's a pause, then, "Emmie? When Amy was talking to the Dalek, you went all funny."

"I just zoned out. It happens."

"No, it wasn't like that. It was like you were having some kind of fit."

"Really?"

"Emmie, could you see anything? Hear anything, what did you hear?"

"I don't remember. I don't know what you mean, I just blanked for a minute, that's all." Emmie tells him. The Doctor lowers the sonic screwdriver, but doesn't let go of her just yet. Something had happened. Is happening. Something's going on, and she's not telling him.

***

**"How about that cuppa then?"**

**_It is the Doctor! Exterminate!_ **

"Is it always going to be like this? I'm not invisible, you know." Emmie says, appearing at the Doctor's side, arms folded.

**_It is the Companion! Exterminate!_ **

"There we go. Honestly, I deserve more recognition."

"There are already songs and sonnets. What more do you want?"

**_Exterminate!_ **

"Wait, wait, wait, I wouldn't if I were you!" the Doctor tells them quickly, producing a Jammie Dodger from his pocket. "TARDIS self-destruct. And you know what that means. My ship goes, you all go with it."

**_You would not use such a device._ **

"Try me." the Doctor says. One of the Daleks forward. 

"No scans!" Emmie says quickly. "No nothing! One move and he'll destroy us all, you got that?" she tells the murderous pepper pots, very seriously.

"TARDIS bang-bang, Daleks _boom._ " the Doctor adds. And then, as the Dalek rolls back to the others, "Good boy." the Doctor starts to move around. Emmie stays puts, arms still folded, not taking her eyes of the Daleks. "This ship's pretty beaten up. Running on empty, I'd say, like you. When we last met, you were at the end of your rope. Finished."

**_One ship survived._ **

"And you fell back through time, yes? Crippled? Dying?"

**_We picked up a trace. One of the Progenitor devices._ **

"And what's a Progenitor when it's at home?" Emmie asks.

**_It is our past. And our future._ **

"Didn't know Daleks could be that deep." Emmi says, an eyebrow quirking upwards.

"What's that mean though?" the Doctor asks.

**_It contains pure Dalek DNA. Thousands were created, all were lost, save one._ **

"Okay, but there's still one thing I don't get though. If you've got the Progenitor, why build Bracewell?"

**_It was...necessary._ **

"But why?" Emmie asks. 

"I get it. Oh, I get it!" the Doctor says suddenly. "I get it! Oh ho, this is rich."

"Care to enlighten me, Doc?"

"Yes of course, Emmie. Progenitor wouldn't recognise them. Would it? It saw this lot as impure. The DNA is unrecognisable as Dalek."

 ** _A solution was devised._** a Dalek tells us.

"Us. Well, him. He said it. The testimony, right?" Emmie says.

"Exactly, Emmie! The Progenitor accepted my word, my recognition of you!" by you, he means that Daleks, of course.

"Oi! What're you doing?" Emmie calls, noticing that one of the pepper pots has turned and attached its toilet-plunger arm to some kind of control board. The Doctor whips out his Jammie Dodger again.

 ** _Withdraw now, Doctor, Companion, or the city dies in flames._** a Dalek tells them.

"Who are you kidding? This ship is a wreck, you don't have the power to destroy London." the Doctor tells them.

**_Watch as the humans destroy themselves._ **

The Doctor doesn't understand at first. It's Emmie that figures it out.

"Oh God. Oh God, London. London in darkness, hiding from the bombers. How do you expose them? You turn on the lights." she marches forward, pointing a finger at the nearest Dalek. "You've lit up London, haven't you? You...You bas-"

 ** _Correct._** the Dalek tells her.

"Turn those lights off now. Turn London off or I swear I will use the TARDIS self-destruct!" the Doctor says, brandishing the Jammie Dodger.

**_Stalemate, Doctor. Leave us and return to Earth._ **

"Oh, that's it? That's your great victory, you leave?"

**_Extinction is not an option. We shall return to our own time and begin again._ **

"No, no, no, I won't let you get away this time! I won't!" the Doctor promises. There's a small whoosh, and then low beeping which increase steadily in pitch.

**_We have succeeded. DNA reconstruction is complete._ **

The Daleks move out of the way of the door, and it opens. The Doctor and Emmie can't see through it, it's obscured by smoke and sparks.

**_Observe, Doctor, a new Dalek paradigm!_ **

A white Dalek wheels out of the smoke towards them. It is followed by a blue Dalek, an orange, a yellow, a red.

The Doctor's fingers have gone cold. Cold with Emmie's fear.

**_The Progenitor has fulfilled our new destiny! Behold! The restoration of the Daleks! The resurrection of the master race! All hail the new Daleks! All hail the new Daleks!_ **

The new, bigger, more colourful Daleks have deeper voices than the old ones. The white one speaks.

**_Yes, you are inferior._ **

**_Yes._ **an old Dalek agrees.

**_Then prepare._ **

**_We are ready!_ **

**_Cleanse the unclean! Obliterate! Disintegrate!_ **

And with that, the blue and red Daleks kill the old ones. Just like that.

"Jeez. What do you do to the ones that muck up?" Emmie wonders aloud.

**_You are the Companion! You must be exterminated!_ **

"I'd like to see you try, sunshine." Emmie says before the Doctor, Jammie Dodger at the ready, steps in front of her.

**_You are the Doctor! You must be exterminated!_ **

"Don't mess with us, sweetheart." he tells it.

**_We are the paradigm of a new Dalek race. Scientist, Strategist, Drone, Eternal and the Supreme._ **

"Which would be you, I'm guessing. Well, you know, nice paint job, I'd be feeling pretty swish if I looked like you." the Doctor says, "Pretty sup-reme." he adds, imitating the Daleks.

"You have a choice to make, _sup-reme_. Turn off this machine or he'll blow up you and your new paradigm." Emmie tells the white Dalek.

 ** _Both the Doctor and the Companion will die._** the Supreme tells her.

"Occupational hazard." the Doctor says. The blue Dalek scoots forward suddenly.

 ** _Scan reveals nothing. TARDIS self-destruct device non-existent!_** it says.

"Oh shi-"

"All right, it's a Jammie Dodger, but I was promised tea!" the Doctor says after stuffing half of it in his mouth and pushing the other half in Emmie's mouth. An alarm sounds, and the yellow and blue Daleks turn to it.

**_Alert! Unidentified projectile approaching!_ **

**_Correction, multiple projectiles!_ **

**_What have the humans done?_** the Supreme asks as the Doctor and Emmie swallow the last of the Jammie Dodger.

"I don't know." the Doctor says.

 ** _Explain! Explain! Explain!_** the Supreme demands.

"Danny Boy to the Doctor. Danny boy to the Doctor! Are you receiving me? Over." a human voice says from nowhere.

"Oh, Winston, you beauty!" the Doctor exclaims with sudden joy.

"Danny Boy to the Doctor. Come in. Over."

"This is the Companion to Danny Boy. Receiving you loud and clear, Danny Boy!" Emmie calls to the ceiling.

"This is the Doctor! Big dish, side of the ship, blow it up! Over!" the Doctor shouts, grabbing Emmie and pulling her backwards as the Daleks wheel past them. But then the Supreme turns. just before Emmie and the Doctor disappear through a door.

**_Exterminate the Doctor! Exterminate the Companion!_ **

But the Daleks don't follow them. Back in the TARDIS, Emmie can hear the voice again.

"Danny Boy to the Doctor. Danny Boy to the Companion. Only me left now. Anything you can do, sir, ma'am? Over."

"The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. We can disrupt the Dalek shields but not for long. Over."

"Good show, Doctor. Go to it. Over."

The Doctor and Emmie moves at once, each pulling at levers and twisting knobs.

"What happens now?" Emmie asks.

"We hope he hits." the Doctor says. Seconds later,

"Danny Boy to the Doctor. Going in for another attack. Over."

"The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. Destroy this ship. Over."

"What about the two of you?"

"We'll be okay, won't we Emmie?"

"We'll be just fine, Danny Boy." Emmie says. And for a moment, Emmie and the Doctor believe it. At least, they do until the Dalek Supreme appears on a screen.

**_Doctor! Call off your attack!_ **

"What? And let you scuttle off back to the future? No fear. This is the end for you. The final end." the Doctor says.

**_Call off the attack, or we will destroy Earth!_ **

"We're not stupid, sunshine. You've already played your last card." Emmie tells it.

**_Bracewell is a bomb!_ **

"You're bluffing. Deception is second nature to you, there isn't a sincere bone in your body."

"There are no bones in their bodies, Doc."

**_His power is derived from an Oblivion Continuum!_ _Call off your attack, or we will detonate the android!_**

"No. No, you can't." Emmie mumbles.

"No! This is my best chance ever! The last of the Daleks! I can rid the universe of you, once and for all!" the Doctor cries. 

**_Then do it. But we will shatter the planet below. Earth will die screaming!_ **

"And if I let you go, you'll be stronger than ever. A new race of Daleks."

**_Then choose, Doctor. Destroy the Daleks or save the Earth. Begin countdown of Oblivion Continuum! Choose, Doctor. Choose! Choose!_ **

For a moment, just a moment, he considers doing nothing. But then he sees Emmie's face. Earth. Her planet. If it were to be destroyed, she'd be the only human being left. The last of her kind. Amy will die. Everyone will die. And Emmie will be alone. The last of her kind.

"The Doctor to Danny Boy, the Doctor to Danny Boy. Withdraw."

***

Emmie finds the Doctor a long time later, sitting on the edge of the TARDIS's swimming pool. His shoes and socks sit beside him, trousers rolled up to his knees so he can dangle his feet in the water. She pulls her own shoes off and sits beside him.

"You okay?" she asks.

"Yeah, course I'm okay, I'm always okay."

"Yeah. Right." Emmie says, making it clear she doesn't believe him. "You could have stopped them. Killed the Daleks. Forever. And you didn't."

"And I didn't. Couldn't destroy Earth, could I? Where would we get in trouble?"

"Somewhere else in the universe." Emmie says, knocking his shoulder with hers.

"Earth is your home, Emmie."

"Earth is just where I was born. It's not home, not anymore." Emmie tells him. The Doctor turns his head to look at her, confused. She doesn't see, looking into the water. Her head tips sideways onto the Doctor's shoulder. "Home is here. Home is the TARDIS. Has been for a long time now." Emmie sits quietly, head on his shoulder, completely oblivious as the Doctor frowns into the water.


	5. The Time Of Angels

**The Doctor can tell Emmie isn't listening to anything anyone is saying.** He can tell by how much she's fiddling with the buttons on her clothes. He can tell by how her eyes are darting all over the place, never settling. He can tell by the fact that his hands are just a little bit cold. They're cold because of Emmie's fear. Emmie's fear of the Weeping Angels.

When Doctor River Song calls them all into the drop-ship and shows them a screen, the Doctor finds his hand reaching for Emmie's as her fingers shake. She's not as good at hiding her fear as he is.

A Weeping Angel can be seen on the screen, flickering.

"What do you think?" River Song asks. "It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board" she explains. "It's four seconds, I've put it on loop." Emmie nods slowly.

"That's an Angel." she says simply, her voice quieter than usual. "Its hands are covering its face."

"You've encountered the Angels before?" Father Octavian asks.

"Once, on Earth, a long time ago." the Doctor says. Emmie can't look away from it. _It's just on a screen. It can't hurt you._ she tells herself. But still, she stares. _I_ _see you, Angel. You can't touch me. I can't blink. I can't._ Almost as if he can her what she's thinking, he squeezes her hand. "But those were scavengers, barely surviving." he adds.

"They could still kill people." Emmie mumbles.

"But it's just a statue." Amy says.

"It's a statue when you see it." River says as Emmie lets go of the Doctor, slightly confused by his actions, and moves to stand by the desk. She can still see the Angel from here.

"Where did it come from?" the Doctor asks.

"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since, dormant all that time." River tells him.

"There's a difference between dormant and patient." he says.

"And Weeping Angels can be very, very patient." Emmie whispers. Her voice has dwindled to next to nothing as cold threads of fear run up her arms.

"It's just a picture, Emmie. Can't hurt you, I promise. You don't have to watch it." the Doctor tells her. Amy looks from Emmie's face, still concentrating on the Angel, to the Doctor's, and the expression of attempted comfort it wears.

"What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?" she asks.

"The Weeping Angels can only move when they're unseen." River tells her, "So legend has it."

"It's not legend, it's true." Emmie says, still staring at the Angel.

"It's a quantum lock." the Doctor says, "In the sight of any living creature, the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone. The ultimate defence mechanism."

"What, being a stone?" Amy asks.

"Being a stone until you turn your back." the Doctor points out.

"Until you blink." Emmie mumbles. Suddenly, she can't see the Angel anymore. All she can see is the Doctor's face.

"Emmie, listen to me. Listen, Em. I'm going to go outside and explain stuff. You're going to stay here. That Angel cannot hurt you. The Angel isn't real. It's a picture. It can't do anything. Okay?" he waits until she nods before bounding out of the drop-ship, followed by River Song and Father Octavian. "The hyperdrive would've split on impact. The whole ship will be flooded with radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms, deadly to almost every living thing."

"Deadly to an Angel?" Octavian asks.

"Dinner to an Angel." the Doctor corrects. "The longer we leave it, the stronger it will grow. Who built that temple and are they still around?" he calls.

"The Aplans. The indigenous life-forms, died out four hundred years ago." River tells him.

"Two hundred years later the planet was terra-formed. Currently, there are six-billion human colonists." Octavian says.

"Ooph, you lot, you're everywhere, you're like rabbits! I'll never get done saving you." the Doctor says. But he doesn't sound disappointed by this.

"Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population-"

"Oh, there is. Bad as it gets. Bishop! Lock and load."

"Verger, how are we doing with those explosives?" Octavian asks, walking past the Doctor, "Dr Song, with me."

"Two minutes. Sweetie, I need you!" River calls after the Doctor. He mouths the word. _Sweetie._ He turns to follow her as Amy shouts from the drop-ship,

"Anybody need me? Nobody?"

"Yes! Amy, look after Emmie!" the Doctor calls as he moves to follow River.

"I don't need looking after." Emmis tells him, jumping down from the drop-ship.

"Yes you do." he says simply, holding up his hand. It is shaking, just like Emmie's. Shaking because of the curse they share, because she is scared. "You do." he says again before looking up at Amy and calling, "Don't let her just stare at the Angel. It can't hurt you!"

Amy makes Emmie sit at the little control desk sticking out of the side of the ship. Emmie sits, pulling a notebook out of her pocket and flipping through it. It's a diary, not unlike River's, that she's kept since she first met the Doctor. She goes to the page where she wrote about the Angels. The Doctor and Martha Jones stuck in 1969, Emmie, then called Bobbie, left alone with the TARDIS and the Angels. She reads over the words again, her eyes landing on the Angels she had drawn. She stares at its face, not hearing Amy shout something to River.

_It's a video. A four second video. It's not real. It can't move. It can't hurt you._

Emmie only moves when Amy's hand darts in front of her face and picks up the remote for the screen. She jumps, startled, and shuts the notebook. As she shoves it into her pocket, she watches Amy fiddling with the remote before she looks at the screen.

The Angel's moved.

Outside with River, the Doctor shivers suddenly. He puts it down to the slight breeze blowing past.

In the drop-ship, Amy creeps closer to the screen as Emmie stands.

"Amy don't."

"But it's just a recording. How can it move?" Amy asks before reaching out and trying to unplug it. She can't. When Amy looks up, she gasps. The Angel's moved again. Emmie turns and tries to open the door. She can't. It won't budge. "Doctor?" Amy calls.

"He won't hear you. He won't hear us." Emmie tells her, hands shaking.

Outside, the book the Doctor's holding moves slightly as his hands shake. He doesn't notice.

Emmie is looking at the door, Amy is looking at Emmie. They look at the screen at the same time. Emmie takes a step backwards. The Angel's mouth is open, its face contorted in a snarl.

"Doctor!" Emmie and Amy's voices are scared as they press themselves against the door. But still it won't move.

"This whole book, it's a warning about the Weeping Angels." the Doctor says, "So why no pictures? Why not show us what to look out for?"

"There was that bit about images, what was that?" River asks. The Doctor opens the book again, flipping through it.

"Yes, hang on..." he says before he finds the page. "'That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an Angel.'" he reads aloud.

"What does that mean? An image of an angel becomes itself an Angel?" River asks.

Emmie realises at that moment, that neither she or Amy are watching the Angel. She looks at the screen. But the Angel isn't there. It has left the screen and is now standing on the floor, flickering.

The book the Doctor is holding drops to the ground. He stares at his hands. They're shaking. Cold fear, like a glass of water thrown at him, is running from his head to his hands. "Emmie. Something's wrong with Emmie, we have to get back to the drop-ship!"

Emmie, meanwhile, is deaf to Amy's yells, to the Doctor's orders from the other side of the door. She has stepped away from the door and is facing the Angel, staring it down. Her hands are balled into fists. This is a time to be brave, and she will be brave. This is a time to protect, and she will protect Amy Pond.

But she doesn't look at the Angel's eyes. She's always been disconcerted by the eyes of statues. Always blank. Always staring. Emmie doesn't look away from the Angel. She jumps slightly as she feels a hand take hers. It's Amy.

"Does he have any idea how hard it is not to blink when you've been told not to blink?" she asks.

"Nope." Emmie answers. "But there's two of us, we can take turns." she says, and she hears a shaky laugh from Amy. Emmie's arm moves as Amy stretches out, reaching for the little desk and fumbling for the remote on it. She presses the off button once, twice.

"It just keeps switching back on!" Amy shouts.

"Yeah, it's the Angel." the Doctor says, his voice muffled by the walls of the drop-ship.

"But it's just a recording."

"No, anything that takes the image of an Angel is an Angel."

"Didn't know that." Emmie says.

"Only found out a few seconds ago." the Doctor tells her.

"Oh brilliant." Emmie mutters. "What else do we not know?" she calls. But the Doctor is too busy disagreeing with River to answer. She hears a small, scared voice.

"What's it going to do to us?" Amy asks.

"Just keep looking at it! Don't stop looking!" the Doctor tells her.

"Just tell me. Em, tell me what it'll do. Tell me!"

"Not the eyes! Amy, Emmie, look anywhere but at the eyes." the Doctor says, the book back in his hands. Emmie never looks at their eyes anyway, but she can't look away from the Angel to see where Amy's looking.

"Why?" Amy asks.

"What is it?" River asks from outside the drop-ship.

"'The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter there.'" the Doctor reads aloud.

"Doctor, what did you say?" Amy asks.

"Don't look at the eyes!" he shouts.

"No, about images, what did you say about images?"

"Whatever holds the image of an Angel is an Angel." Emmie tells her quickly. She's been staring for too long. She needs to blink, has to close her eyes-

But then the Angel is gone. It is nothing but a mass of static. And then it disappears completely, the whole screen going black as River and the Doctor spill into the drop-ship.

"I froze it! There was a sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip." Amy says. Her voice is unsteady. The Doctor goes to the screen, unplugging it and zapping the plug with his sonic.

"It wasn't the image of an Angel anymore." Emmie realises aloud. She's still staring at the screen, though it's blank and her eyes are stingy and dry.

"That was good, yeah?" Amy asks, "It was, wasn't it? That was pretty good."

"That was amazing." River assures her.

"River, hug Amy and Emmie. Emmie, blink and breathe, my eyes hurt and it's your fault." the Doctor says.

"Why?" Amy asks.

"Cause I'm busy."

"I'm fine."

"You're brilliant." River says as she turns Amy to face her.

"Yeah. I kind of creamed it, didn't I?" Amy asks pointedly, sending a look at the Doctor.

"So it was here? That was the Angel?" River asks, hugging Emmie who finally blinks and makes herself look away from the screen to let her head rest against River's.

"That was a projection of the Angel. It's reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant." the Doctor answers.

***

** Emmie **

**My hand is reaching for a statue's face when I hear the gun going off.**

All four of us turn at once and run towards the sound, darting through the statues in the labyrinth. I can hear one of the cleric's voices.

"Sorry. Sorry, I thought...I thought it was looking at me."

"We know what the Angel looks like." Father Octavian says. "Is that the Angel?"

"No, sir." the cleric answers.

"No, sir, it is not! According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil. So it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of decor." Father Octavian tells him.

"What's your name?" I ask, mostly to stop Octavian yelling at him.

"Bob, ma'am." he tells me.

"Ah, that's a great name, I love Bob." the Doctor says.

"It's a Sacred Name. We all have Sacred Names, they're given to us in the service for the Church." Octavian explains.

"Sacred Bob. More like Scared Bob now, eh?" the Doctor asks.

"Yes, sir." Bob says, slightly unsurely.

"Good. Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron. Carry on."

"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes." Octavian says to the room at large before saying to Bob, "You stay with Christian and Angelo, guard the approach."

"Isn't there a chance this lot's just gonna collapse? There's a whole ship up there." Amy says after a few minutes.

"The Aplans were incredible architects and builders." Emmie tells her.

"Yes, you're rather fond of them, aren't you, Emmie?" the Doctor mumbles. "We had dinner with their chief architect once. Two heads are better than one." he adds.

"What, you mean you helped him?" Amy asks.

"No, the Aplans all had two heads." Emmie explains.

"That book, the very end, what did it say?" the Doctor asks suddenly.

"Hang on." River says, digging the book out and flipping the pages.

"Read it to me."

"'What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us. The time of Angels.'" River reads. For some reason, I shiver. I'm not cold. I'm not particularly scared. But I have that eerie feeling that's putting me on edge. The feeling that something's watching me.

***

**"Are we there yet? It's a hell of a climb."**

"The maze is on six levels, representing the ascent of the soul. Only two levels to go." River tells Amy.

"Lovely species, the Aplans." the Doctor mumbles.

"Can we visit them again one day?" I ask hopefully.

"Course we can." the Doctor tells me.

"I thought they were all dead?" Amy says.

"So's Virginia Woolf, I'm on her bowling team." the Doctor says.

"Time machine, Amy." I remind her, and she nods while the Doctor continues talking about the Aplans,

"Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. Well, that's having two heads of course. You're never short of a snog with an extra head."

"Doctor, there's something. I don't know what it is..." River starts.

"Yeah, there's something wrong, don't know what it is yet either, working on it." the Doctor replies. I wonder if they're talking about the strange feeling I've been having. Something definitely seems a bit off here. But then he starts talking about the Aplans again, "Course, then they started having laws against self-marrying and what was that about? But that's the church for you, no offence, Bishop." he says the last part while shining his torch in Father Octavian's face.

"Quite a lot taken, if that's alright, Doctor." Octavian says before moving forward, ahead of the rest of us. "Lowest point of the wreckage is only fifty feet up from here. This way." he says, pointing his torch in the direction he means.

"Church had a point if you think about it. The divorces must have been messy." Amy says. And that's when I stop, very suddenly. River bashes into me before she asks,

"What's wrong?"

"The Aplans had two heads." I murmur.

"Yes, that's fairly well established." she says, sounding confused.

"So why don't any of these statues?" I ask. "Doctor." I say suddenly, and he turns while I stare up at a statue. "Doctor, I've seen Aplan statues. They have two heads."

"Oh." he says.

"How could we not notice that?" River hisses.

"Low level perception filter, or maybe we're thick." he says.

"What's wrong, sir?" Octavian asks.

"Nobody move, nobody move." he says as River walks forward. He aims the beam of his torch at her. "Everyone stay exactly where they are." he says, and she stops. "Bishop I am truly sorry and we are all in danger."

"Doctor, tell me I'm wrong. Tell me that I'm wrong, that I've made a mistake." I say, still staring at the statue in front of me.

"There's only one way to find out, Emmie." he tells me.

"What?" Amy asks, sounding irritated that she doesn't understand what everyone else seems to know.

"Don't. Please don't." I mumble.

"We have to know." the Doctor tells me. "Amy, switch off your torch and hold Emmie's hand. Take her over...there."

"Why?" she asks.

"Because I can't and she's scared. All of you, go over there and switch off your torches." he says. I'm pulled over to the corner he's aiming his torch at.

"Sir?" Octavian asks.

"Just do it." the Doctor says. River reaches out and switches my torch off before doing the same to her own. There's clicking all around as everything gets darker and darker until it's only the Doctor's torch left. "Okay. I'm going to turn off this one too, just for a moment."

"Don't." the word escapes me before I can stop it.

"Are you sure about this?" River asks.

"No." he says simply. And then there's a click. The statues are gone. Everything is in complete darkness. Another click. The statues are back. But not the way we left them.

"Oh my God. They've moved." Amy says, shock clear in her voice, her hand gripping mine. The Doctor is already running off, checking all the statues. All of them have moved, in one way or another. River follows him, and I pull Amy after her. One statue is on the floor, reaching out to us.

"Emmie, you were right. They're Angels. All of them." the Doctor says.

"But they can't be." River says.

"Look at them, River. They've moved. They moved when we weren't looking. They're Angels." I say, fear sliding down my arms as I let go of Amy's hand to switch my torch back on.

"Clerics, keep watching them." the Doctor says before bounding past the statue on the floor. I don't think. I just follow him. He'll need someone to watch out for him. Quite literally.


	6. Flesh And Stone

**Emmie**

**I can see the mix of disbelief and wonder on Amy's face as the wall slides upwards.**

"That's a..." she starts.

"It's an oxygen factory." River says matter-of-factly

"It's a forest."

"Yeah, it's a forest. It's an oxygen factory."

"And, if we're lucky, an escape route." the Doctor says.

"Eight." Amy says.

"What did you say?" River asks.

"Nothing." Amy says.

"Is there another exit? Scan the architecture, we don't have time to get lost in there." the Doctor says.

"On it." Father Octavian says immediately, stepping into the forest as he adds, "Stay where you are until I've checked the Rad levels."

"You said eight." I tell Amy.

"No I didn't. I didn't say anything." she assures me before stepping closer to the Doctor. "But trees! On a spaceship?"

"Oh, more than trees, way better than trees. You're going to love this." he says, moving forward and stepping into the forest.

"Treeborgs?" I ask.

"Treeborgs." the Doctor nods before pressing part of a tree's bark. It flips downwards like a panel, exposing clear wires with little white lights in them. "Trees plus technology. Branches become cables, become sensors on the hull. A forest, sucking in starlight, breathing out air." as he explains it I step into the forest myself and look up at the cables sticking out of the tops of the trees. "It even rains! There's w hole mini-climate. This is an eco-pod running through the heart of the ship." he bounces back up onto the little step on the threshold between forest and ship and says, "A forest in a bottle on a space ship in a maze, have I impressed you yet, Amy Pond?" he asks. Amy just laughs and says,

"Seven."

"Seven?" I repeat the word at the same time as the Doctor as I turn away from the trees to look at her again. I walk back to the normal part of the ship as Amy asks,

"Sorry, what?"

"You said seven." the Doctor tells her.

"No, I didn't." Amy says.

"Yes you did." River tells her.

"Doctor, there's an exit at the far end of the ship into the Primary Flight Deck." Father Octavian says, momentarily distracting us all from Amy.

"Uh, good, that's where we need to go." the Doctor says.

"Plotting a safe path."

"Quick as you like."

And then I hear a different voice.

"Doctor? Excuse me? Hello, Doctor?"

"That's Bob." I say as the Doctor pulls the radio out of his pocket just as the voice says,

"Angel Bob here, sir."

"Ah, there you are, Angel Bob. How's life treating you?" the Doctor asks. "Sorry, bad subject."

"The Angels are wondering what you hope to achieve." Angel Bob says.

"Achieve? We're not achieving anything, we're just hanging. It's nice in here. Consoles, comfy chairs, a forest. How's things with you?"

"The Angels are feasting, sir." Angel Bob answers. It gives me a very uncomfortable feeling to hear his voice being used like this. "Soon we will be able to absorb enough power to consume this vessel, this world, and all the worlds and stars beyond."

"Well, we've got comfy chairs, did I mention?"

"We have no need of comfy chairs."

"I made him say comfy chairs." the Doctor says, quite proudly. I poke him.

"Priorities, Doctor. You know, like living?" I say. Amy's laughing, but then she says,

"Six."

"Alright, Bob, enough chat. What have you done to Amy?" the Doctor asks, springing up from the chair he'd been sitting in.

"There is something in her eye." Angel Bob tells him.

"What's in her eye?" the Doctor asks. I realise it just as Angel Bob says,

"We are."

"'The eyes are not the windows to the soul, they are the doors.'" I mumble, remembering the Doctor reading that line from the old book. I share a nervous glance with River while the Doctor moves to stand in front of Amy, looking into her eyes.

"What's he talking about? Doctor, I'm five." she says. Then she looks at me, confused by her own words. She shakes her head a little and tries to correct herself, "I mean, five. Fine. I'm fine."

"You're counting." River says.

"Counting?" Amy asks, as if she's completely unaware of that fact.

"You're counting down. From ten. You have been for a couple of minutes." the Doctor tells her.

"Why?" Amy asks.

"I don't know."

"Well, counting down to what?"

"I don't know."

"We shall take her. We shall take her, and the Companion. We shall take you all." Angel Bob's voice says over the radio. "We shall have dominion over all time and space." the Doctor sits back down in the chair while I watch Amy.

"Get a life, Bob. Oops, sorry again." he says into the radio, "There's power on this ship but nowhere near that much."

"With respect, sir, there's more power on this ship than you yet understand." Angel Bob says. There's a sudden loud screeching.

"What is that?" River asks, "Dear God, what is that?"

"That's the Angels." I tell her, "That's the Angels laughing."

"The Companion Lillian Tate is right." Angel Bob's voice says.

"I am not Lillian Tate."

"Not anymore. You were Lillian. Then you were Roberta. And now-"

"Shut up and tell us why they're laughing." I cut in.

"Because neither of you have noticed yet. The Doctor in his TARDIS and his Companion haven't noticed."

"Doctor-" Father Octavian starts.

"No, wait, there's something I've..." the Doctor starts his sentence. Hearing a strange noise I don't recognize, I turn.

"Doctor!"

"Missed." he finishes his sentence as he turns.

"That's...that's like the crack from my bedroom wall when I was a little girl." Amy says.

"Yes." the Doctor says simply.

***

 **"So can I open my eyes now?"** Amy asks.

"Amy, listen to me. If you open your eyes now for more than a second, you will die. The Angel is still inside you. We haven't stopped it, we've just sort of paused it. You've used up your countdown, you cannot open your eyes." the Doctor tells her. I'm not looking at him or River or Amy as I hold her hand, but I'm staring at an Angel that none of the clerics are watching.

"Doctor, we're too exposed here, we have to move on." Father Octavian says.

"We're exposed everywhere, and Amy can't move, and anyway, that's not the plan."

"There's a plan?" River asks, echoing my thoughts perfectly.

"I don't know yet, I haven't finished talking. Right! Father, you and your clerics are going to stay here, look after Amy. If anything happens to her, I'll hold every single one of you personally responsible twice. River, you, me and Emmie are going the Primary Flight Deck which is..." he pauses to lick his finger and hold it up in the air, moving his arm around before saying, "Quarter of a mile, straight ahead. And from there, we'll stabilise the wreckage, stop the Angels and cure Amy"

"How?" River asks.

"I'll do a thing."

"What's the thing?"

"It's a thing in progress, respect the thing. Moving out!"

I look away from the Angel, not noticing that it's disappeared, nod and say,

"Three."

But, I don't. In my head I said _okay._ But out loud, I've said _three._

"What?" River asks.

"Three." I repeat.

"Doctor, I'm coming with you. My clerics can look after Miss Pond. These are my best men, they'd lay down their lives in her protection." Father Octavian says. Neither he nor the Doctor hear me when I look at River and say,

"Two." there's mild panic in my voice.

"Emily, close your eyes!" River cries.

"What's going on?" Amy asks, just as I screw my eyes shut. This is my worst nightmare. Blind in the middle of an army of Angels.

"Doctor!" River calls. I hear his footsteps before I hear his voice.

"What's happened?" he asks. I point ahead of me. My finger finds the Doctor's stomach before he moves to the side.

"There...there was an Angel there, I was watching it. And then it wasn't there, so I looked away." I say.

"Did you blink?"

"No."

"Where were you looking?"

"What?"

"Emmie, tell me, did you look in its eyes?"

"I don't know! I don't know, I tried-"

"Doctor, I think we know what's happened. There's no point distressing her further." River says sharply.

"Tell me what's going on!" Amy demands. No one says anything. So I force myself to speak.

"There's an Angel. There's an Angel in my head."

***

 **Emmie is trying to make her voice calm.** It's not working. Amy squeezes her hand while someone else takes her other hand. She's not sure if it's the Doctor or River.

"Right. Change of plan. We take both of you with us, we'll all go together." the Doctor says.

"They'll slow us down, Doctor. My clerics will be able to protect them here." Octavian says. Emmie can hear River hissing something to him, several feet away. So it must be the Doctor that is holding her hand. He moves to take it away, but she tightens her grip on it.

"Don't leave me. Please don't leave me." her voice is small and scared, her hands cold with fear.

"I don't want to say it, but he's right. You two will be safer here. I'll be back for you as soon as I can. I promise." the Doctor says.

"You always say that." Amy mutters.

"I always come back."

"Yes, late." Emmie says. For a moment, she feels a hand almost touching her face. A ghost of a touch on her cheek.

"I always come back." the Doctor repeats. And then his hand is gone from Emmie's. He's standing up, calling to the clerics, "Good luck everyone. Behave. Do not let those girls open their eyes. And keep watching the forest, stop those Angels advancing." he pats Amy and Emmie's heads in turn. "Amy, Emmie, later. River, going to need your computer!" and then he's gone. Amy and Emmie are alone on the log, their eyes closed, their hands linked.

"Yeah. Later." Amy mutters. Emmie can feel her fidgeting. She jumps a little when she hears the Doctor's voice again.

"Amy, you need to start trusting me. It's never been more important." he says.

"But you don't always tell me the truth."

"If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me."

"Doctor. The crack in my wall, how can it be here?"

"I don't know yet, but I'm working it out. Now, listen. Remember what I told you when you were seven?"

"What did you tell me?"

"No, no. That's not the point." he says, his forehead pressed against Amy's. "You have to remember." he tells her. She doesn't expect the kiss on her forehead he gives her, and she doesn't react.

Emmie stays silent, scared, panicked and confused. Tears are threatening to escape her. She jumps again as she hears an almost inaudible voice next to her ear.

"I know you're scared, Emily Tate. I'm sorry you're scared. I promised to keep you away from the Angels and I failed. I have failed you more times than I can count. But I can fix this, I will fix this."

"You promise?" Emmie asks. She's trying to joke. And it at least makes the Doctor smile a little.

"Yes. I promise. And that is one promise to you that I will not break."

"Make another promise."

"Anything."

"Don't leave me."

He's not sure what to say to that. He does the same as he did with Amy, resting his head against Emmie's.

"You know I have to go." he tells her.

"Please." a tear slides down Emmie's nose as Amy squeezes her hand even tighter.

"I will come back. I'll always come back for you. That's the other promise I'll never break." the Doctor says. He plants a kiss on her forehead, like he did with Amy. And then he's gone, and Amy and Emmie are once again left alone on the log, their eyes closed and their hands linked.

***

 **"Point me at the light."** Amy says.

"You can't open your eyes." a cleric reminds her. Emmie's pretty sure it's Marco.

"Not for more than a second. We've still got some countdown left." Emmie says.

"No, you can't, the Doctor-"

"I am the Doctor's Companion and I do as I please. You've heard the stories of what I do to the people who tell me what I can and cannot do." Emmie's voice is sharp.

"Miss Pond, you can't." Marco says, changing tack.

"I need to see it." Amy insists. "Am I looking the right way? I have to be quick." as Marco gives in and turns her slightly, Amy turns Emmie by the hand she is still holding onto. They open their eyes at the same time. "It's the same shape. It's the crack in my wall." Amy says. Emmie has seen all she needs to. She closes her eyes before her countdown ends.

"Close your eyes!" Marco says. Amy is still staring at the crack.

"It's following me. How can it be following me?" Amy asks. Emmie is pulled down to the ground as Amy falters and sits heavily. Emmie lifts her free hand to find Amy's face, trying to cover Amy's eyes.

"Are you okay?" Marco asks.

"Yeah."

"Miss Tate?"

"Fine." Emmie answers.

"Em, it was the same shape." Amy whispers.

"I know. I know. I don't understand how it's here though..."

"Marco, you want me to get a closer look at that?" Pedro, the other cleric that's with them, asks.

"Go for it." Marco says. He watches as Pedro walks off, but Amy and Emmie can only listen to the rustle of the leaves on the ground. "Don't get too close."

"Hang on, what about the other two, why not just wait until they come back?" Amy asks.

"What other two?" Marco asks.

"Crispin and Phillip, you sent them to have a look at it." Emmie reminds him.

"Crispin and who? I didn't send anyone." Marco says.

"Phillip. You sent them to look at the crack." Emmie says.

"Amy, Emily, there was never a Crispin or a Phillip on this mission, I promise you."

"No. I heard you, we both did. Before Pedro, you sent Crispin and Phillip." Amy says. "And now you can't even remember them."

"Something's happened. Don't know what or why, but you can't remember them." Emmie says.

"Pedro?" March asks.

"Yes! Pedro, you let him go to have a look at the crack a minute ago!"

"Who's Pedro?"

***

When River Song teleports them, she catches Amy. But Emmie falls to the floor, her shoulders shaking.

"Don't open your eyes. You're on the Flight Deck, the Doctor's here. I teleported you." River says before turning her head to look at the Doctor as she sits Amy down, adding, "See? Told you I could get it working."

"Where is he?" Emmie asks. "Where's the Doctor?"

"About five feet in front of you." River tells her.

"Good. Get him over here so I can hit him."

"Emmie, stop being so scared, you're making my hands shake." the Doctor says.

"I'm scared because of you! Because of your bullshit promises!"

"Look, calm down, we're going home."

"I don't have a home! I don't have a home, and that's your fault too." Emmie snaps before she feels arms go around her. River.

"Doctor, shut up and do your job." she tells him. "Emily, don't argue."

"Why shouldn't I?" Emmie asks irritably.

"Because I am from the future and I know what happens. Don't lose the Doctor, Emily. You can't. If the Doctor loses you, he loses everything all over again."  
  
  



	7. The Vampires Of Venice

**I hate this. I am going to kill the Doctor.**

I stand up quickly, making the paper on the top of the 'cake' burst. There is silence, peppered with noises of confusion. Pretty much everybody's frowning. I hear several mutters of,

"Why's she still got her clothes on?"

Then I see Rory. Shaking his head.

"Oh no. Emmie-" he starts.

"Rory. We need to talk." I say, arms folded.

"Ooh. Old ex, Rory?" one of the men asks, elbowing him.

"Why's she still got her clothes on?" someone else asks, more loudly.

"I'm not Rory's ex, I'm not your bloody stripper and can someone _please_ go and help poor Lucy, she's stuck outside in a bikini while the Doctor finds her a jumper and it is rather cold."

"Oh, he's here too?" Rory asks, shocked just a little bit.

"Yeah." I mutter. "But for some reason he sent me in instead. Thought you wouldn't be angry if I told you. Though I'm bloody angry too!" I shout the last part, in the hopes that the Doctor's earpiece might deafen him.

"Why, what's happened? Nothing's wrong with Amy, is there?" Rory asks, now more worried than shocked. I close my eyes for a second. I really don't want to tell him. I really don't want to be standing in front of all these people. In front of all these _men who are waiting for me to take my clothes off._

"Amy kissed the Doctor." I say, my eyes still closed. There's a loud _oooohhhh_ before I add, "This isn't me, this is me saying what the Doctor is telling me to say because he was too much of a coward to say it to your face."

"He just told you to call him a coward?" Rory asks.

"No, I added that bit in myself." I say, and he nods approvingly. "But he does say...oh my God, really? He says 'Don't worry, she's a great kisser.'" I relay the Doctor's words to Rory before muttering quietly, "Doctor, you know how sometimes things sound fine in your head? They don't always sound fine when you actually say them."

***

 **"What do you mean, too much of a coward?"** Rory asks.

"Well, not exactly. He keeps mixing you up with Jeff. So there he was thinking you were Jeff while I reminded him of what humans usually do when you tell them that you kissed their significant other, and he decided to make me go instead." I say.

"Oh great. So if he'd known it was me rather than Jeff, would he have come?" Rory asks. I scrunch up my nose.

"Probably." I say as I click my fingers. The TARDIS open its door, and I lead Rory inside.

***

 **"I'm sending you somewhere. Together."** the Doctor says, lifting his goggles off.

"Wha..what, like a date?" Amy asks.

"Anywhere you want, anytime you want. One condition: it has to be amazing." the Doctor says, throwing me a cookie as he makes his way to me. He's being extra nice, giving me sweets. He's trying to apologise for what happened with the Angels. "Moulin Rouge in 1890," he continues, "the first Olympic Games. Think of it as a wedding present because, frankly, it's either this or tokens." he realises Rory hasn't moved yet and bounds over to him, throwing another cookie to me over his shoulder. I pass this second cookie to Amy. "It's a lot to take in, isn't it? Tiny box, huge room inside, what's that about? Let me explain."

"It's basically another dimension." Rory says flatly.

"It's basically another dimen..." the Doctor trails off, frowning at Rory. "What?"

"After what happened with Prisoner Zero I've been reading up on all the latest scientific theories. FTL travel, parallel universes-"

"I like the bit when someone says 'It's bigger on the inside.' I always look forward to that." the Doctor says. He doesn't sound happy and bouncy anymore. I move forward, taking a bite out of my cookie.

"Finally, an intelligent one! I think you're the first one not to say it apart from me. Of course, I could be wrong, some of my memories have been taken, but very clever of you to-" I start.

"Alright, Emmie, we get it." the Doctor cuts in, turning away.

"Can we keep him?"

"Keep him?"

"I let you keep Amy."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Amy asks.

"We've gone off topic." I say quickly. "What about this date, Amy?"

"Well, I'm kind of done with running down corridors." she says. "What do you think, Rory?" almost as soon as she's finished speaking, the Doctor's yanked on a lever and the TARDIS jerks. He looks at me and wiggles his eyebrows. I cross my eyes and stick my tongue out before stuffing the rest of my cookie in my mouth as I move to stand beside him. Of course I've forgiven him for the fiasco with the Angels. I always do. But it's always fun to let him think that I haven't.

"How about somewhere...romantic?" he asks me.

"Oh, you didn't." I say, getting a funny feeling that I know where we are.

"I did."

"You didn't."

"I did."

"Um, sorry, but where are we?" Amy asks. I go to the door, shoving it open and jumping down out of the TARDIS.

"Venice!" I say, grinning.

"Venezia!" the Doctor says.

"La Serenissima!" we say together. I'm still grinning as the Doctor goes on to say,

"Impossible city! Preposterous city! Founded by refugees running from Attila the Hun. It was jut a collection of little wooden huts in the middle of the marsh but became one of the most powerful cities in the world." he says. I told him that. I told him once, years ago now, that I've always wanted to go to Venice. That the human race considered it one of the most romantic places in the world. That I wanted to go on a gondola. I can't believe he remembered. He starts to walk, and Amy, Rory and I follow him.

"Constantly being invaded, constantly flooding. Constantly...just beautiful! Oh, you gotta love Venice. And so many people did. Byron, Napoleon, our own Emmie Tate." he says, reaching backwards to try and find me. His hand finds my face and obscures my vision for a moment, but it's the thought that counts I suppose. "Casanova. Oh, that reminds me." he lifts his other hand to look at his watch. "1580. That's alright. Casanova doesn't get born for a hundred and forty-five years."

"Don't want to run into him, you still owe him a chicken." I say.

"He owes Casanova a chicken?" Rory asks.

"They had a bet." I tell him.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah." a little man in black clothes is blocking our path. "Paper, if you please. Proof of residency, current bill of medical inspection."

"There you go, fella." the Doctor says, holding up his Psychic Paper. The man snatches it from him. "All to your satisfaction, I think you'll find." he adds as the man glances at it. The little man bows as he says,

"I am so sorry, your Holiness. I didn't realise."

"No worries, you were just doing your job. Sorry, what exactly is your job?"

"Checking for aliens." the little man says, and I can feel the look Amy gives the Doctor. She wants to laugh, I can tell, as the man continues, "Visitors from foreign lands what might bring the plague with them." Amy's amusement dies.

"Oh, that's nice! See where you bring me? The plague!" I get the feeling she wants to hit the Doctor, but I'm standing in between them, so she can't.

"Don't worry, Viscountess." the little man says, now bowing to Amy, who gives a relieved sigh, playing her part. "No, we're under quarantine here. No one comes in, no one comes out." as he explains, Rory, looking baffled, stares at Amy. "And all because of the grace and wisdom of our patron, Signora Rosanna Calvierri." as he says her name, he strokes the book in his arms.

"Interesting. I'd heard the plague died out years ago." I say lightly, now intrigued.

"Not out there." the man tells me, pointing past me, "No, Signora Calvierri has seen it with her own eyes. Streets are piled high with bodies, she said."

"Did she now?" the Doctor says as Rory reaches forward and take the Psychic Paper back from the little man. We move past him, but Rory stands there for a moment, staring at it.

"Uh, according to this, I'm your eunuch."

***

**"So we're going to Prague next, right?"**

"Why would we go to Prague?" the Doctor asks.

"Because I asked to go there two regenerations ago." I tell him, leaning over the stone balcony to look into the canal."

"I've already told you I'm not taking you to Prague." he says, leaning even further over the balcony. I wriggle forward so I'm level with him.

"Alesund then."

"What is it with you and Europe? You have all of time and space, Emmie!"

"What is it with you and Earth? You have all of time and space, Doctor." I say, imitating him.

"Alright, alright. What about Athens?"

"Perfect. And then...Giza?"

"Ugh, Em-"

"It's not Europe." I point out. I can almost feel him smiling.

"Fine. Athens and Giza it is." he says eventually. I reach forward and ruffle his hair.

"Thanks, Doc."

I've only got one hand on the balcony, and almost half my body is hanging over the canal. This seems to worry Rory, as he grabs the back of my top and pulls me back onto the ground. I then pull the Doctor down before he can tip himself into the water. Then I hear a shout.

"Isabella!"

Ahead of us, there's a procession of girls in veils, lead by a stately woman dressed in black. I can hear whispers around me, "The Calvierri girls." The man is going from girl to girl, shouting and lifting their veils.

"Where's my Isabella! Isabella!" he seems to find the one he's looking for, "Isabella! It's me!" he says. The girl he's standing in front of is backing away, and then another girl is suddenly in his face. I don't know what she does but the man falls over.

"Girls! Come along!" the woman in black calls. All the girls flick their veils back over their heads, turn and follow the woman. Another man in a cape puts his foot on the chest of the man on the floor. I can't quite hear what he say, but then he sweeps away.

"Isabella!" the man on the ground shouts the name again. I notice the Doctor turn and run off. For a second, I'm torn. I shouldn't leave Amy and Rory on their own.....but I really shouldn't leave the destructive toddler that is the Doctor on his own either. I decide that Amy and Rory can handle themselves, and take off after the Doctor.

***

 **"As you saw, there's no clear way in. The House of** **Calvierri** **is like a fortress."** Guido, Isabella's father, tells us, pointing at the map he's put on the table. "But there's a tunnel underneath it with a ladder and a shaft that leads up into the house. I tried to get in once myself, but I hit a trapdoor."

"You need someone on the inside." Amy says.

"No." the Doctor tells her without looking up from the map.

"You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"Uh, that we pretend you're an applicant for the school to get you inside and tonight you come down to open the trapdoor and let us in."

"Oh. So you did know what I was going to say."

"Are you insane?" Rory asks.

"We don't have another option." Amy tells him.

"Yes we do." I say, hopping off the barrel I'd been sitting on next to Rory. "We have me."

"Absolutely not." the Doctor says, without looking up.

"Yes. I already look like a vampire. More than Amy, anyway."

"Emmie, you can hardly say boo to a goose." Rory says. I turn suddenly to look at him, pull a face and shout,

"Boo!"

Of course, he jumps.

"It's Emily." the Doctor says sharply.

"What?" Rory asks.

"It's Emily." he repeats. Rory frowns.

"But you call her Emmie, I thought that was her name."

"Yes. I call her Emmie, you call her Emily."

Rory looks at me, and I just shake my head.

"We do have another option." Guido tells us, gesturing at the barrels Rory is still sitting on. "I work at the Arsenale. We build warships for the Navy." he explains while the Doctor sniffs at the barrels.

"Gunpowder." he says. "Most people just nick stationary from where they work. Look, I have a thing about guns and huge quantities of explosives."

"He's against them." I explain. Guido hits the table and turns to tend to the fire.

"What do you suggest then? We wait until they turn her into an animal?" he asks.

"I'll be there three, four hours tops." Amy says casually.

"We'll be there." I correct. We share a look, and then she nods.

"Yeah. We'll be there for four hours tops." she says. The Doctor looks like he's about to smile but then he turns.

"No. No, no, no, no, no. It can't keep happening like this, this is how they go." he mutters. I'm the only one that understands.

"And that's why I'll go." I tell him, moving to stand just a few steps behind him.

"I can't let you go, you know I can't."

"You know you can." I say quietly. He sits heavily on some sacks, rubbing at his head before looking up at me.

"I hate it when you're right. We have to know. We'll go together. Say you're my daughters."

"What? Don't listen to him." Rory says, marching towards Amy.

"Your daughter? You look about nine." she says to the Doctor.

"My sisters then." the Doctor says.

"I don't look like you. Fiancée."

"I can't have two fiancées, Amy."

"A fiancée and a sister then." I say quickly, watching Rory's face as he gets annoyed, then tries to calm himself down.

"Which of us is which?" Amy asks.

"It doesn't matter."

"Him being my brother's weird. I'll be the fiancée."

"I'm not having him run around telling people he's your fiancé!" Rory says.

"No. No, you're right." Amy says after a moment.

"Thank you."

"I mean, they've already seen the Doctor. You should do it."

"What? No!"

***

**"So, basically, both of our parents are dead from getting the plague. I'm a gondola...driver."**

"Gondolier." I hiss in Rory's ear.

"Gondolier." he corrects himself quickly. "So...money's a bit tight. So having my sisters go to your for special people would be brilliant. Cheers." I want to hit myself in the head. I can't imagine what Signora Calvierri must be hearing through our translator. I have no idea how 'cheers' will be translated.

The man leaning on Rosanna Calvierri's throne pushes himself off it and moves forward.

"Have we met?" he asks, looking at Amy.

"I've just got one of those faces." Rory says, but the man holds up a hand to silence him.

"I wasn't talking to you."

"She's got the same face. Which is because she's my sister! Both of them are!"

"Carlo, explain yourself." Signora Calvierri demands of the little man who had escorted us in. "Why have you brought me this imbecile?"

"Signora, they have references from his majesty the king of Sweden." Carlo says. The other man, I recognise him as the one who stood on Guido when he was looking for Isabella, is prowling around the three of us. He stares at Amy most. But then he looks at me. I could swear I can hear him sniffing. Fear goes through me. But not my own. My fear is cold, in my hands. I'm feeling a warm sensation in my chest. This is the Doctor's fear. _Is he scared for me, or for Amy?_

"What?" Rosanna Calvierri asks. "Let me see." Carlo looks at Rory, who walks towards Rosanna, holding out the Psychic Paper. Which just allows the other man to creep even closer to me and Amy. _Did he seriously just smell my hair?_

"Well now I can see what got my steward so excited." Rosanna says after a moment. "What say you, Francesco, do you like them?"

Francesco must be the man who is really far too close to me, as he's the one who answers.

"Oh I do, Mother. I do. This one," he stares at Amy, "has such a familiarity about her. But this one. Oh, this one." he walks around me one more time before stopping to stare straight into my eyes. I stare right back. "This one has such an air of mystery. Oh yes, I do like them."

"Then we shall be delighted to accept them." Rosanna says, "Say goodbye to your sisters."

***

**"Psychic Paper. Did you really think that would work on me?"**

There's a quiet buzz, and the room is filled with green light. The girls line the walls. Rosanna stands before us, Francesco at the door.

"Where are you from? Did you fall through the chasm?" Rosanna asks. As Amy and I struggle, we end us forcing Carlo to move. Rosanna follows us.

"Mother, this is pointless, let's just start the process." Francesco says, sounding bored and leering towards Amy. I push myself in front of her as Rosanna snaps,

"Hold your tongue, Francesco! I need to know what these girls are doing in the world of savages with Psychic Paper! Who are you with? See, I scarcely believe your idiot brother sent you. What are you doing in my school?" as she speaks, two of the girls bring in a chair. With straps, just like Isabella said. Francesco hangs a hook from the ceiling. The girls attach bags of blood to it. A drip.

"Okay. I'll tell you. We're from Ofsted." Amy says. Rosanna laughs manically before saying,

"Put her in the chair."

"No!" my voice bursts out of me loudly, just as Amy and I manage to get free from Carlo.

"What?" Rosanna asks.

"She's only human. I know that you know I'm more. You can smell it."

I haven't told the Doctor about it. I haven't told him anything. I haven't told him that the video on Starship UK wouldn't play. I had checked my vitals when we'd gotten back to the TARDIS. I haven't told him about that either. I haven't told him that I'm not human.

"You smell human." Rosanna Calvierri says, but she's clearly unsure.

"No, I'm not. And you know it. You just don't know what else I have in me. I could be anything."

"A filthy hybrid!" she exclaims.

"A hybrid, yes. Filthy, I think not."

"Enough lies. Put the red one in the chair."

"No!" I lunge forward, planting myself in between Amy and the girls and Carlo. "If you're going to drink from anyone, drink from me."

"Why should I?" Rosanna asks sharply. I hesitate. "Well?"

"I have regenerative abilities." I say. The words rush out of me.

"Em, what are you saying?" Amy hisses, both confused and scared, not understanding what Emmie is saying.

"You...regenerate? But that's not possible. The only species that can do that..." Rosanna trails off.

"Mother? Mother, what is she?" Francesco asks, momentarily forgetting about the process.

"The only species you know of that can do that are the Gallifreyans. The Time Lords." I say.

"It's impossible...." Rosanna whispers.

"No, I'm not. I'm right here. Drink enough of my blood, and you will gain my abilities. That's how it works, isn't it? A trade. My blood for yours."

"You cannot be from Gallifrey." Rosanna says quietly.

"I am a Time Lord! And I am sacrificing my future regenerations in exchange for this human's life!" as I say it, I sit heavily in the chair, lining my limbs up with the straps. There's a moment where Rosanna Calvierri looks at me, shocked. Francesco leers at Amy and I in turn. Carlo's face has no expression. I stare defiantly at Rosanna until she nods at two of the girls.

"Very well."

***

**The Doctor's hand flies to his neck as two** **pinpricks** **of pain start there before the sharp pain travels down his throat.**

"They've bitten Emmie." he says before feeling a dull ache in his head. "And she's passed out."

"Uh, how do you know that?" Rory asks. The Doctor just waves his hand dismissively.

"Long story, and she's better at telling it than me."

"They've bitten her." Rory mumbles before his voice becomes slightly louder. "That's what's dangerous about you." Rory says, shaking his head, "It's not that you make people take risks. It's that you make them want to impress you."

"Emmie doesn't need to impress me."

"I don't just mean Emmie! Amy thinks she'll be letting you down if she doesn't take stupid risks, if she doesn't put herself in danger to impress you. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around."

"Who are you?" several voices ask at once. The Doctor turns, feeling slightly dizzy. A side effect of Emmie's bite, no doubt. A group of girls stand in front of him and Rory, fangs bared. He waves the ultraviolet torch in his hand at them.

"We should run. Run!"

About two minutes later, they skid to a halt. They've lost the girls, but they've run into Rosanna and Francesco.

"Cab for Amy Pond and Emmie Tate?" the Doctor says innocently.

Emmie's head still lolls as Amy scrambles to undo the straps around her wrists.

"Wake up, Em. Wake up!" she hisses. Then she screams as she feels a hand on hers.

"It's alright. I'm helping you." Isabella whispers. "Get her ankles."

They manage to get Emmie to her feet.

"Em! Em, please!" Amy hisses, poking her. Emmie doesn't react. So Amy slaps her.

"Yow! Um, ow!"

"I had to wake you up somehow."

"Next time, just cook some bacon. Works every time."

"Yeah, well, bit short on bacon at the moment. Now come on, we have to go. I heard the Doctor."

"Where's Rosanna?" Emmie asks. Amy just gives her a look, and Emmie understands. "Chasing the Doctor."

"We have to go now." Isabella says. And they do, all three of them taking off, Emmie stumbling a little, still dizzy. They've been running for less than a minute before they find them.

"Rory!" Amy shouts.

"Through here!" Isabella calls, turning and leading the way out. She takes them down twisting stone stairs.

"They're not vampires." Amy says.

"What?" the Doctor asks, turning to seal the door behind them with his sonic.

"Not vampires. Aliens. Amy busted her perception filter." Emmie forces out as Amy starts to laugh. The Doctor laughs too.

"Classic."

"That's good news?" Rory asks, incredulous, "What is wrong with you people?"

"Rather a lot." Emmie says, as another thought occurs to her. "Doctor, give Isabella your coat. She burns in the sun."

"It's not even light yet." Rory says.

"We can't take that chance. Isabella!" the Doctor calls as he shrugs his tweed coat off, "Hold this over your head!"

He's running in front of Emmie. She's at the back of the group. No one notices when she stumbles and falls to the ground. No one hears her calls over the hissing of the 'vampires.' She's left behind. She's dragged backwards.

"Mother! Mother, the Time Lady! I have her!"

Sharp pain goes through the Doctor's head, his hands turning ice-cold. He whips round.

"Emmie!"

The door is closed. He turns back. Isabella, with the Doctor's jacket held over her head, is being hugged by her father. Rory is making sure Amy isn't injured. Amy's staring at the Doctor, dismayed.

"No!"

The Doctor launches himself at the closed door. There's a loud crackling. Amy can see blue electricity lashing across his body as he twitches and falls to the ground. He doesn't get up. Rory goes to him first.

"Is he dead?" Amy asks, eyes closed, prepared for the worst.

"No, he's breathing." Rory replies. "Emmie..."

"She's still in there."

***

**"Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you, Sister of the Water?"**

"Let me guess. The owner of the psychic paper." Rosanna Calvierri says, seemingly unsurprised by the man sitting in her throne-like chair. "Then I take it you are a refugee like me?"

"I'll make you a deal." says the Doctor, "An answer for an answer. You're using a perception filter. It doesn't change your features, but manipulates the brainwaves of the person looking at you. But seeing one of you for the first time in, say, a mirror, the brain doesn't know what to fill the gap with so leaves it blank. Hence no reflection."

"Your question?" Rosanna asks.

"Why can we see your big teeth?" the Doctor asks. Rosanna laughs before she answers,

"Self-preservation overrides the mirage. The subconscious perceives the threat and tries to alert the conscious brain."

"Where's Emmie?"

"My turn." Rosanna says, and the Doctor's face sours a little. "Where are you from?" she asks.

"Gallifrey." he answers. _Like the girl claims to be._ Rosanna notes.

"You should be in a museum. Or a mausoleum." is what she says aloud.

"Why are you here?" the Doctor asks, deciding to wait before asking about Emmie again.

"We ran from the silence." Rosanna says simply. "Why are you here?"

"Wedding present. And a promise I made a long time ago. The silence?"

"There were cracks. Some were tiny, some were as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people and through others we saw silence...and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours and the crack snapped shut behind us. Saturnyne was lost."

"So Earth is to become Saturnyne Mark Two?"

"And you can help me. We can build a new society, as others have. What do you say?" Rosanna asks, smiling. The Doctor makes a noncommittal 'hmm' noise before asking standing and moving to stand before Rosanna.

"Where's Emmie?" he asks before moving past her.

"Emmie?" Rosanna asks. _So that is her name._

"My friend."

"You took the red-haired one with you."

"Not that one. The other one. My...my friend."

"Ah. The other Time Lord. The other half of your matching pair." Rosanna says.

 _The other Time Lord?_ The Doctor is confused by Rosanna Calvierri's words, but he doesn't show it.

"The only ones left. Like myself and my sons. I need an answer, Doctor." Rosanna continues. "A partnership. Any which way you choose."

"I don't think that's such a good idea. Do you? I'm a Time Lord. You're a big fish." he pauses before adding, "Think of the children."

"Carlo!" Rosanna calls, and the door opens as Carlo enters. "You're right. We're nothing alike. I will bend the heavens to save my race while you philosophise." she turns her head to speak to Carlo, but is distracted by the Doctor's voice.

"This ends today. I'll tear down the house of Calvierri stone by stone." he says. Carlo attempts to grab him to take him away, but the Doctor pushes him off. "Take your hands off me, Carlo." he says, without looking away from Rosanna. He turns for the door, Carlo following him. He stops and turns again to say, "And do you know why? You didn't know their names."

"Whose names?"

"Emmie's. Amy's. Isabella's. You didn't know their names."

"Who is she to you? The Time Lady?"

"She is not a Time Lady!" the Doctor shouts. Rosanna merely smiles.

"Ah. So she has hidden it from you. She has hidden what she is. I'm not entirely surprised, knowing what you've done for your people. I understand why she would hide."

The Doctor doesn't seem to react. He simply turns and leaves.

***

 **"Isabella."** is the first thing Emmie says when she wakes up.

"She's dead." the Doctor tells her.

"Guido?"

"Dead. They...they exploded the gunpowder in their house to kill the girls."

"Rory? Amy?"

"They're fine. On the other side of the TARDIS." the Doctor tells her, and she deflates slightly with relief before tensing up again.

"Rosanna Calvierri? Venice, what happened?" she asks.

"Signora Calvierri tried to sink Venice. She didn't manage it. She...killed herself."

"Oh." it's the only sound she can make, the only sound she feels is appropriate for what she's been told. She's still in the dress that Carlo made her wear. It's damp. It's made the blanket of her bed damp too.

"There are no lasting effects of the bites." the Doctor says after a moment. Emmie's hand goes automatically to her neck. Both Rosanna and Francesco had bitten her, had drunk her blood. "But there is something I would like you to explain. Signora Calvierri seemed to be under the impression that you were from Gallifrey. That you are a Time Lord. Lady."

"Oh."

"And, while checking your vitals, the sonic found this." the Doctor says, pulling a screen out from a wall. "Tell me why the sonic told me this, Emmie Tate."

_Lillian Tate. Roberta Tate. Emily Tate._

_60% Human_

_40% Gallifreyan. Time Lord._

"I...I don't know." Emmie mumbles. The numbers have changed since she was on Starship UK.

"On Starship UK, you couldn't see the film. This is why. Tell me why you are almost half Time Lord."

"I don't know. I'm human, Doctor, I'm from Earth."

"Apparently not!" 

"Don't shout at me. I don't know how this happened. Last time either of us checked it was the day I started travelling with you. I was completely human then."

"Emmie, how is this possible?" the Doctor asks. She hesitates too long. "Tell me!"

"Stop. Shouting. Stop it, Doctor. When we were on Starship UK, the sonic told me I was only thirty-eight percent Time Lord."

"Only-"

"Let me finish. The numbers have changed since then. I don't know what it is or why it's happening, but it is."

"Why didn't you tell me?" the Doctor asks. And again, Emmie hesitates. "Why?" he asks. And he sounds hurt. Offended.

"I don't know."

"You don't seem to know an awful lot."

"Don't make fun of this. Being human was the only thing I had left after that curse. And now it's being taken away from me." Emmie's voice is suddenly sharp and venomous. "I'm turning Time Lord. You're not the only one anymore."


	8. Amy's Choice

**"You've swallowed a moon!"** the Doctor exclaims when he sees Amy, so clearly concerned that Emmie puts a hand on his arm as she tells him,

"She's pregnant, Doc. Congratulations."

"Thanks." Rory nods.

"Or perhaps a planet?" the Doctor wonders aloud.

"I'm pregnant." Amy tells him, and he steps forward to stare at her stomach, his hands moving forwards to touch it.

"You're huge!"

"Yeah, I'm pregnant."

"Look at you." he says before turning a circle to look at Rory and then facing Amy again as he says, "When worlds collide."

"Doctor, I'm pregnant." Amy tells him again, waiting for some sort of reaction to her words.

"Oh, look at you both, five years later and you haven't changed a bit." the Doctor says, hugging both of them before trying to hug Emmie as well. She isn't overly fond of hugs, so pushes him off as he adds, "Apart from age and size."

"It's good to see you, Doctor." Amy says. The Doctor looks from her stomach to her face and back again as realisation dawns.

"Are you pregnant?"

***

 **"Ah, Leadworth. Vibrant as ever."** the Doctor says as he, Rory, Amy and Emmie walk, a little faster than Amy would like.

"It's Upper Leadworth, actually." Rory corrects him.

"Moving up in the world." Emmie mumbles.

"Where is everyone?" the Doctor asks. And he has a point, there isn't a single other person to be seen.

"This is busy." Amy tells him. "Okay, it's quiet. But it's really restful and...healthy. Loads of people round here live well into their ninties."

"Well, don't let that get you down."

"It's not getting me down." Amy tells him, sitting on a bench the men were about to pass. Rory sits next to her, and Emmie sits next to him before the Doctor can, so he sits quite happily on the ground.

"Well, I wanted to see how you were. You know me, I don't just abandon people when they leave the TARDIS. This Time Lord's for life, you don't get rid of your old pal the Doctor so easily."

"You came here by mistake, didn't you?"

"Yep." Emmie says before the Doctor can make up an excuse. "But, you know, nice to see you." she adds brightly, and a slightly awkward silence falls

"So, what do you do around here to stave of the..." the Doctor starts.

"Boredom?" Amy suggests at the same time as he finishes his question with,

"Self-harm?" he earns a small kick from Emmie's boot for that, and Rory gives him a strange look.

"We relax." he says, "We live. We listen to the birds."

"Yeah, see? Birds. Those are nice." Amy tries.

"We didn't get time to listen to birds in the TARDIS days, did we?"

"Ooh, blimey, my head's a bit _ooh._ " the Doctor cuts in, and Emmie frowns at him, though she does feel a small twinge at her forehead. "No, you're right. There wasn't much time for birdsong in the good," the Doctor words are slowing, and Emmie's head is drooping, "Old...

"-Days. What? No, yes, sorry, what? Emmie?"

"Here. Here, Doc." Emmie calls as she pulls herself to her feet.

"Oh, right. Good. Good." the Doctor says, rather distractedly. He sees Rory moving up the stairs, Amy being helped up by Emmie. "Oh, you're okay. Oh, thank God. I had a terrible nightmare about you." he says as Amy rubs her stomach where, seconds before, a baby bump had been. "That was scary."

"Doct-"

"Don't ask, you don't want to know." the Doctor cuts in, moving to hug Amy. "You're safe now." Amy hugs him back, rather awkwardly, before he moves onto Emmie, who just accepts it with defeat, patting his back as his head lands on her shoulder. "You're safe and that's what counts." he says before abruptly pulling himself away from her. "Blimey, never dropped off like that before. Well, never, really." Amy rubs her now-flat stomach again, leaning backwards to look at the back of Rory's head. "I'm getting on a bit, you see." the Doctor continues, "Don't let the cool gear fool you. Now, what's wrong with the console?"

"Red flashing lights." Emmie says, pointing to them.

"Bet that means something."

"Doctor, I also had a kind of dream thing." Rory says.

"Yeah, so did I." Amy says.

"Not a nightmare though, just, um, we were married."

"Yeah. In a little village."

"A sweet little village. And you were pregnant." Rory says. Emmie looks to the Doctor, who's frowning slightly. She'd dreamed that exact thing.

"Yes, I was huge. I was a boat!" Amy says, not noticing Emmie and the Doctor as they creep closer, both staring intently at her and Rory.

"So you had the same dream then? Exactly the same dream?" Rory asks.

"Are you calling me a boat?"

"And, Doctor, you and Em were visiting." Rory says quickly, at the same time as Emmie pulls down the back of his jacket. No ponytail. The Doctor flicks Amy's coat open. No baby bump.

"Yeah, yeah, you came to our cottage." Amy says, not reacting to their behaviour.

"I had the same dream." Emmie mumbles.

"How can we have had exactly the same dream, it doesn't make any sense." Rory says.

"And you had a nightmare about us, Doctor. What happened to us in the nightmare?" Amy asks him.

"It was a bit similar. In some aspects." he tells her.

"You had the exact same dream too, didn't you?" Emmie asks, sighing a little. Of course he had.

"Basically."

"You said it was a nightmare." Rory reminds him.

"Did I say a nightmare?" the Doctor asks.

"Yes." Amy says.

"No," the Doctor continues, ignoring her, "more of a really good...mare." he says. Emmie puts her head in her hands. "Look, it doesn't matter, we've all had some kind of psychic episode. We probably just jumped a time track or something. Forget it, we're back to reality now." but as he speaks, the other three can hear birdsong. The exact same birdsong they'd heard before falling asleep in Leadworth.

"Doctor, I can still hear birds." Emmie tells him, looking up at the ceiling as if looking for said birds.

"Yeah, the same birds, the ones we heard in the-"

"-Dream."

When they wake up, Emmie's head has fallen against Rory's. Amy's cradling her stomach. The Doctor had been sitting on the ground at Emmie's feet, his head now fallen backwards into her lap.

"Woah, sorry." Rory says, scooting as far away from Emmie as he can get on the over crowded bench. "Nodded off, stupid. God, I must be overdoing it. I was dreaming we were back on the TARDIS."

As the Doctor stands, Emmie and Amy stare at Rory.

"You two both just had the same dream, didn't you?" Rory asks. Emmie nods.

"Back on the TARDIS, weren't we just saying the same thing?" Amy asks.

"But we thought that this was the dream, didn't we?"

"I think so. Why do dreams have to fade so quickly?" Amy asks, pushing herself up.

"Doctor, what is going on?"

"Is this because of you? Is this some Time Lordy thing because you've shown up again?"

"Listen to me, trust nothing. From now on trust nothing you see, hear or feel." the Doctor says.

"I never do." Emmie says.

"Good."

"But we're awake now!" Rory says.

"We thought we were awake on the TARDIS." Emmie reminds him.

"But we're home." Amy says.

"Yeah, you're home, you're also dreaming. Trouble is, Rory, Amy, Emmie, which is which? Are we flashing forwards or backwards? Hold on tight. This is going to be a tricky one."

***

**They're on the TARDIS again.**

"This is bad. I don't like this!" the Doctor says before kicking the controls. Then he makes a loud noise of pain and starts limping in circles, clutching at his leg.

"Never use force, Doctor, you just embarrass yourself." Emmie tells him as the pain from his kick puts an ache in her foot.

"Unless you're cross, then you always use force."

" _No._ "

"Shall I run and get the manual?" Amy asks.

"He threw it in a supernova because he disagreed with it." Emmie tells her, and Amy sighs.

"So whatever's wrong with the TARDIS is what's causing us to dream about the future?" Rory asks.

"If we were dreaming about the future..." the Doctor starts.

"Well of course we were, we were in Leadworth." Amy says.

"Upper Leadworth." Rory corrects, still rather proud of that fact.

"But we could be in Upper Leadworth and dreaming of this." Emmie points out.

"Don't you get it?" the Doctor asks, handing Amy a spanner.

"No, okay? No, this is real. I'm definitely awake now." she says.

"Yeah, and you thought you were awake when you were all..." the Doctor holds out his arms and makes his cheeks look like a hamster's, "elephanty."

"Hey. Pregnant." Amy corrects, aiming the spanner at him.

"You could be giving birth right now. This could be a dream. I've told you, trust nothing we see or hear or feel. Look around you. Examine everything. Look for all the details that don't ring true."

"Says the tweed wearing alien standing in a time machine with his companion that is at least twice the age she looks, a completely flat-stomached pregnant woman and a Rory Williams." Emmie says.

"Maybe 'what rings true' isn't so simple." Rory says, putting air quotes around the phrase.

"Valid point." the Doctor mumbles. He's starting up the TARDIS, trying to make it go. But then, everything goes black. Emmie's hand shoots out and finds the Doctor's just as he says, "It's dead. We're in a dead time machine."

"Doctor, the birds." Emmie says as she hears them.

"Remember. This is real, but when we wake up in the other place, remember how real this feels." 

"This is real. I know it's real." Amy insists.

***

**Emmie**

**The Doctor has just wriggled into Mrs Poggit's jumper when we hear the birdsong again. We wake up in the TARDIS.**

"Okay. I hate this, Doctor. Stop it, because this is definitely real, it's definitely this one." Amy says confidently before adding, "I keep saying that, don't I?"

"It's bloody cold." Rory says.

"The heating's off." the Doctor tells him.

"The heating's off."

"Yeah. Put on a jumper, that's what I always do."

"Yes, sorry about Mrs Poggit. She's so lovely though."

"Oh, I wouldn't believe her nice old lady act if I were you." the Doctor says, shrugging his jacket off, "Emmie, put this on, you get cold quicker than me." he says, throwing it to me. I catch it.

"You'll get cold faster if you don't have it." I say.

"Just put it on." The sleeves are just that little bit too long. The tips of my fingers poke out the ends, but I'll have to pull the sleeves up to use my hands properly.

"Doctor, what do you mean 'act?'" Amy asks.

"Everything's off, sensors, core power." he says, ignoring her question.

"We're drifting." I realise aloud.

"The scanner's down, we can't even see out."

"We could be anywhere."

"Someone, something is overriding my controls." the Doctor says. The first thing that comes to my mind is the Angels. I still think about them. Still have nightmares. I think I always will.

"It's not Angels" the Doctor says quickly, as if he's heard me. Perhaps I'd said the words aloud.

"Then what is it?"

"Well, that took a while." a voice. A man's voice. The Doctor and I turn as Amy and Rory jump. A little man stands at the top of the stairs. He's short. His hair is thinning. His clothes are not dissimilar to the Doctor's, complete with bowtie. "I'd heard such good things." he says, as he starts to walk down the stairs. The man gestures at the Doctor. "Last of the Time Lords, the Oncoming Storm. Him in the bowtie." he says. He looks at me, eyes travelling up and down before his face settles into a slightly unimpressed look. "And you. The only other Time Lord left in existence. The Burning Star. The Immortal Companion forever at the Doctor's side."

"The only other Time Lord?" Amy repeats.

"How did you get into my TARDIS?" the Doctor asks as they walk past us.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"What shall we call me?" the man asks no one in particular. "Well, if you are Time Lords, I will be the Dream Lords."

"Nice look." the Doctor says.

"This?" the Dream Lord says, "No, I'm not convinced. Bow ties?"

"The other Time Lord?" Amy asks again.

"I'll explain later." I tell her hurriedly. In one move, the Doctor pulls a small ball from his pocket and throws it at the Dream Lord. It sails right through him, and I catch it. I throw it back through the Dream Lord, and the Doctor catches it and tucks it back into his pocket.

"Interesting." the Dream Lord mutters. "I'd love to be impressed, but Dream Lord. It's in the name. Spooky, not quite there." he says, before he disappears. "And yet very much here." I jump at his voice behind me, startled backwards. He's teleported somehow, and I don't like it. I feel a hand on my back, and start again.

"Just me." the Doctor whispers. "I'll do the talking, thank you." he says, louder, to the Dream Lord. "Amy, Emmie. Any educated guesses?"

"Um, Dream Lords. They create dreams?" Amy suggests.

"Dreams, delusions, cheap tricks."

"And what about the gooseberry here, does he get a guess?" the Dream Lord asks.

"Uh, listen, mate, if anyone's a gooseberry around here, it's the Doctor." Rory tells him.

"There's a delusion we're not responsible for." the Dream Lord mutters.

"No, he is. Isn't he, Amy?" Rory says.

"Oh, Amy. You do need to sort your men out." the Dream Lord tells her, shaking his head. "Choose, even."

"I have chosen. Of course I've chosen." Amy tells him. She hits Rory in the chest a moment later. "It's you, stupid."

"Oh, good, thanks." Rory says, relieved.

"You can't fool me, Amelia Pond. I've seen your dreams." the Dream Lord says to Amy, "Some of them twice. Blimey, I'd blush if I had a blood supply. Or a real face."The Dream Lord disappears, reappearing right behind me. I jump again, my hand finding the Doctor's arm and grabbing onto it a little too tightly.

"Stop doing that!" the Doctor tells him.

"Ah. Sorry for scaring your little pet." the Dream Lord says, unapologetically. "I've seen your dreams too. And some that don't belong in your head..."

"Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?" the Doctor asks.

"Me? Oh, you're on shaky ground." the Dream Lord tells the Doctor, "If you had any more tawdry quirks you could open up a Tawdry Quirk shop. The madcap vehicle, the cockamamie hair, he clothes designed by a first-year fashion student. I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space dog just to ram home what an intergalactic wag you are. And as for Emmie Tate-"

"You leave her out of this." the Doctor warns.

"Oh ho. Protective of your pet, are you?" the Dream Lord says, smiling. His face goes slack suddenly, a look of confusion forming. "Now, where was I...."

"You were-" Rory starts. The Dream Lord flickers, and he appears upstairs.

"I know where I was. Here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here in the time machine, and there in the village that time forgot." he tells us, "One is real. One is fake. And just to make it more fun, you'll be facing a life-threatening situation in each world. But only one danger is real. Now, you won't be seeing me again. But I'll be seeing you. Tweet tweet. Time to sleep." the Dream Lord says. He smiles as I hear the birds again. I can feel myself getting heavier, my eyes closing. The last thing I hear is the Dream Lord's voice, "Or are you waking up?"

***

 **"Why would they leave?"** Rory asks as we leave the old folks home.

"And what did you mean about Mrs Poggit's nice old lady act?" Amy asks, waddling towards us.

"One of my tawdry quirks, sniffing out things that aren't what they seem." the Doctor tells her.

"Or, you know, sticking your nose where it doesn't belong." I add.

"Come on, let's think." the Doctor continues, ignoring me, "The mechanics of this reality split we're stuck in. Time asleep exactly matches time in our dream world, unlike in conventional dreams."

"And we're all dreaming the same dream at the same time?" Rory checks.

"Yep." I tell him.

"Sort of communal trance, very rare, very complicated." the Doctor adds, "I'm sure there's a dream giveaway, a tell." as he speaks, his hand gestures become sharper, his voice louder and angrier, "But my mind isn't working because this village is so dull! I'm slowing down like you two have."

"Doctor!" I hiss. I've been trying to work on his people skills, honest. It's like my lessons go in one ear and out the other.

"Ow." Amy says suddenly, hand on her stomach as she grabs Rory's arm. "Really, ow." Rory pulls away from her to stand in front of her as she yells in pain. Both he and the Doctor look panicked. I stand, arms folded, completely calm. "It's coming!" both of the men reach for an arm to hold each.

"Help her, you're a doctor." the Doctor says to Rory.

"You're a doctor!" he counters.

"It's okay, we're doctors." he says, crouching and holding his hands under Amy, between her legs. "What do we do?"

"Not that." I tell him, just as Amy straightens up and stops screaming.

"Okay, it's not coming." she says calmly, and I smile a little.

"What?" the Doctor asks.

"This is my life now and it just turned you white as a sheet. So don't you call it dull again. Ever. Okay?"

"Sorry."

"Yeah." Amy says, pushing through them.

"What are you laughing about?" the Doctor asks me sharply.

"Not laughing." I say, though I'm close to it. "Next time you try and deliver a baby, ask me, I've done it before." I tell him, following Amy.

"Emmie? Hang on, have you-" Rory starts.

"Delivered a baby?" I ask.

"Given birth?" Rory asks.

We've said the words at the same time. I freeze. _Given birth?_ something in my head echoes with the screams of a new-born child.

"No. No, of course not." I tell him. But my voice is stiff, and I can't quite make myself move. I can hear a baby crying in my head, the beeping of hospital machines.

"Emmie. Come on, after Amy." the Doctor says quietly, "It's alright." he adds, putting an arm around me and taking hold of my elbow. I break away from him.

"I'm fine." I say robotically before following Amy. I sit on the swing next to the one she's on. The Doctor starts pushing me gently, and I lift my feet up from the ground so I swing slowly back and forth as he pushes me.

"Now, we all know there's an elephant in the room." the Doctor says brightly.

"I have to be this size, I'm having a baby." Amy mutters grumpily, arms folded on top of her stomach.

"No, no, the hormones seem real, but no." the Doctor tells her. He's leaving a gap, waiting for me to speak.

"So nobody's going to mention Rory's ponytail?" I ask, and the Doctor laughs a little as Amy splutters.

"You hold him down, I'll cut it off." he offers.

"This from the man in the bow-tie." Rory points out.

"Bow-ties are cool."

"Who told you that?" I ask, tipping my head back to look up at him.

"I did." he tells me proudly. 

***

**"Hello, peasants! What's this, attack of the old people? Oh that's ridiculous. This has got to be the dream."**

"That's what you want us to think." I say to the Dream Lord.

"And what do you think, Lillian? Or is it Bobbie? Oh no, you're Emmie now, aren't you? Little Tate, the Doctor's precious pet."

"I am not a pet!" I spit.

"Ooh, spitfire you've got here, Doctor. So what do you think, Companion? This one's the dream, right? So let's all jump under a bus and wake up in the TARDIS. You first."

"Leave her alone." the Doctor warns.

"Do that again. I love it when he does that, tall dark hero, 'Leave her alone!'"

"Just leave her!" Rory tells him, a hand reaching for my arm.

"Yes, you're not quite so impressive." the Dream Lord says sniffily. "I know where your heart lies, don't I, Amy Pond?" he asks, changing tack.

"Shut up. Just shut up and leave me alone." Amy tells him. The Dream Lord steps towards her. I step between them, too tall for the Dream Lord to see Amy properly anymore. But still, he talks.

"But listen, you're in there. Loves a redhead, our naughty Doctor. Has he told you about Elizabeth the First? Well, she thought she was the first." the Dream Lord says, craning around me to look at Amy. But then he looks up, right at me. "Oh don't worry, Emmie. I suppose he likes this dark look you've got going on too-"

"Drop it. Drop all of it, I know who you are." the Doctor cuts in, before I get a chance to insult this infuriating little man.

"Course you don't." the Dream Lord says, not looking away from me.

"Course I do. No idea how you can be here, but there's only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you."

At this, the Dream Lord turns his head, just enough to give the Doctor a sly smile.

"Never mind me. Maybe you should worry about them." All our heads turn at once to look at the swiftly advancing old folk.

"Doctor, he's gone." I say quickly. And he has. The Dream Lord has disappeared again.

***

 **"Ah, it's colder."** Amy says as she sits up, shuddering. I've still got the Doctor's coat on, but it's not doing much now, even as I do up the buttons. My fingers fumble, starting to go numb.

"The four of us have to agree, now, which is the dream." the Doctor says.

"It's this, here." Rory says adamantly.

"He could be right. The science is all wrong here, burning ice?" Amy says.

"Emmie." the Doctor says.

"What?" I ask.

"What do you think?"

"Which one do I think is the dream?"

"Yes."

"I don't know. I dunno." I tell him, my voice shaking a little as I curl up into a smaller ball. "But ice can burn. Hell, sofas can read, it's a big universe, anything can happen." I pause, then ask, "Doctor? How did we get to Leadworth?"

"Upper Leadworth." Rory corrects.

"Doctor, which world do you think is real?" Amy asks.

"This one." he says instantly.

"No, the other one." Rory says.

"Yeah, but are we disagreeing or competing?"

"Competing over what?" Amy asks, and both the boys look at her sharply. "Really?" she mutters to me.

"Yep." I tell her.

"Ugh." Amy sighs, standing up and walking off.

"Nine minutes till impact. Emmie, how're your fingers?" the Doctor asks.

"Cold." I tell him, pulling the sleeves of his coat over my hands.

"What temperature is it?" Amy asks.

"Outside? Brr! How many noughts have you got? Inside? I can't feel my feet and...other parts." the Doctor tells her.

"I think all my parts are basically fine." Rory tell him.

"Stop competing."

"Can't we call for help?" Rory asks pointedly, lunging for the phone.

"Yeah, cause the universe is really small, someone's bound to be near this death-trap!" I say.

"Put these on. All of you." Amy says, throwing something at me and the Doctor before pulling one over Rory's head.

"Oh, a poncho! The biggest crime against fashion since lederhosen." Rory says while the Doctor twirls around in his as if it's a tutu.

"There we go." Amy says, pulling her hair through the hole so it sits comfortably. "Ah, look at our boys, Em. Our poncho boys."

"If we're going to die, let's die looking like a Peruvian folk band." I say as we squeeze ourselves between Rory and the Doctor.

"Couldn't have put it better myself."

"We're not going to die." Rory says.

"No, we're not, but our time's running out." the Doctor says, "If we fall asleep here, we're in trouble. If we could divide up, then we'd have an active presence in each world." he says, walking away from us, "But the Dream Lord is switching us between the worlds. Why, why, what's the logic?"

"Good idea, veggie." the Dream Lord says, appearing out of nowhere to pace alongside the Doctor, "Let's divide you up. There's four of you, so two and two. And I think I should have a conversation with our girls here, don't you, Doctor?"

"No, you leave them-"

"Maybe I'll keep Emmie, and you can have Pond and Pointy Nose to yourself for all eternity, should you manage to clamber aboard some sort of reality." 

"Can you hear that?" Rory asks.

"What? No." Amy says.

"Is it the birds?" I ask.

"Yes. Amy, don't be scared, we'll be back." the Doctor tells her. "Emmie, don't-" but he falls to the floor before he can say anything else.

"We're going to have fun, aren't we girls? But wait, I need to speak to you alone. Emmie, off you pop to another dream." the Dream Lord says, and it is then that I hear the birds.

"No. No, Amy!"

"Em, no, don't go-"

"I'll find you, Amy, I promise!"

And then all is darkness. For a single moment. And then it is golden light. Sunlight. I'm in a bed. With pillows and a duvet. The walls around me are yellow, not blue. This room....it feels familiar. It's not until I sit up and look around me that I realise why. This is my room. My old room, from my old reality. From before I met the Doctor. It's quiet. Too quiet. There were always loads of people in my house, it was never quiet. I stand, push the door open and venture out into the hallway.

"Hello? Hello?" I call through the house, sticking my head in various rooms as I pass them. I reach the stairs and go down them. "Anyone there?" I call. "Maybe you've all gone swimming. And I'm talking myself. Well done, Emmie, first sign of madness." she mutters to herself before laughing a little. "Ah, who am I kidding, I started going mad decades ago." There is still no sign of anyone when I reach the kitchen. "Hello? Mum?"

I don't get an answer. I go up on my toes to see the top of the fridge. No one ever looked there, but Mum would clean it religiously. She cleaned everything religiously. But there is dust on top of the fridge, a thick layer of it. Mum hasn't cleaned it in a while. I look around. Everything is covered in a layer of dust. I look back to the fridge. There are drawings on it, stuck to it by magnets. A brown dog, a purple cat...and a blue box with the word _Poleece_ scrawled on it.

"What the hell-"

I hear the front door bang open, and I go to it.

"Mum!"

But it's not my mum. Smart shoes. Black suit. And a disgusting, bulbous head. It's features look like a candle that's melted. It has three fingers on each hand, and one of these hands is reaching for me. I turn and bolt up the stairs.

I frown when I reach the landing, holding onto the banister.

Why had I been running?

***

 **The Doctor wakes up slumped against the door. He can hear the Eknodines through the thick metal.** **He looks down. Emmie is asleep on the floor.**

"Oh, Emmie. Emmie, Emmie, no. No." he says, forgetting the aliens for a moment as he lands on the floors beside her. "Come on, there has to be some way to wake you up." if he'd been Amy, he would have slapped Emmie to wake her. But he is not Amy Pond, so he doesn't. Rory would have stayed in this room, hoping the aliens would leave. But the Doctor isn't Rory Williams either. 

A sharp pain enters his head. Emmie's pain. She twitches in her sleep, frowning. The Doctor reaches out to her without thinking, his hand holding her face, making sure her head doesn't tip.

"What's he doing to you, Emmie?" he asks. Because he can feel Emmie's fear in him. Emmie's scared, and he can't help her. "What's that nasty Dream Lord doing?" he asks, hand moving of its own accord to move Emmie's hair. His hand doesn't leave her. Her eyes open suddenly, and she gasps in a breath.

"Emmie. Emmie!" she doesn't respond to the Doctor. She doesn't seem to hear him, see him. She breathes out two simple words, and her eyes fall shut again. She starts twitching, shaking, like she did in the War Rooms.

"Doctor who?"

"Emmie? Emmie?" the Doctor asks. But she is still again. Unmoving. Asleep. Something thumps on the other side of the door. "Right. Got to do something. Got to find Amy and Rory." he says firmly, sliding an arm under Emmie's legs and lifting her into the air. "Come along, Tate. Time to do our job."

***

 **"Why are you doing this?"** Emmie asks. She's back in the TARDIS, shuddering in the Doctor's coat and Amy's haphazardly made poncho. Amy isn't here. Well, she is. But she's asleep on the floor beside Rory and the Doctor. "Why did you show me that?"

"Show you what? Where did you go?" the Dream Lord asks, tilting his head to the side and plastering on a confused expression.

"You know where I was. Why did you put me there?"

"I suppose it was whatever you needed to see, now, I need to know something." the Dream Lord says, dropping the confused face.

"I'm not telling you anything unless you wake me up and put me back with the Doctor."

"Oh, the Doctor, the Doctor. You really can't talk about anything else, can you?"

"Just get this over with and leave us alone." Emmie warns.

"Ooh, almost as intimidating as the man himself." the Dream Lord says, putting his hands up defensively. "Now, little Emmie Tate, tell me what I want to know."

"Tell me who you are first. I don't know you but the Doctor does, and he's not telling me. He has a reason for that, so don't try and tell me it's because he doesn't trust me."

"Is that who you think you are? The one he trusts?"

"Yes."

"So what's his name?" the Dream Lord asks. Emmie opens her mouth, and then closes it. The Dream Lord laughs again and teleports so he's standing beside the Doctor. "You don't know, do you? You think he trusts you more than anyone, and you don't even know his name."

"If I knew, I wouldn't tell you. If I knew, I'd tell you I didn't."

"And do you?"

"No."

"But you'd say that if you did know?" the Dream Lord asks. Emmie quirks an eyebrow upwards.

"Would I?"

"Oh, Emmie. Don't play games with me." the Dream Lord tells me, walking forward. He has to look up to see me, he's that short.

"I'm not playing games. I'm telling facts and asking questions. If the Doctor trusted me enough to tell me his name, do you really think I'd go and tell every Tom, Dick and Harry that asks?"

"You do know."

"Do I?" Emmie asks, eyes lighting up. She's in control now, she's making the Dream Lord doubt himself. At least, she is until he speaks again.

***

**"So. You chose this world. Well done. You got it right. And with only seconds left. Fair's fair. Let's warm you up. I hope you've enjoyed your little fictions. Though I am rather surprised how you chose, Emmie. It all came out of your imaginations, so I'll leave you to ponder that. I have been defeated. I shall withdraw. Farewell."**

The Doctor, Amy and Rory manage to get to their feet. The Doctor wobbles a little, and grabs a railing. He sees Emmie, still on the floor, prickling with ice.

"Emmie. Emmie, come on, girl. Come on. Wake up. Wake up or we're all...done for." the Doctor's words are slow, affected by Emmie's sleep, her coldness. He picks up her hand and rubs it, trying to put some warmth into her. Her eyes open slowly, like his had.

"Doctor."

"Emmie." the Doctor says, smiling a little. She sits up slowly, and is soon attacked by a hug. "That's my girl!" the Doctor says brightly before standing and pulling levers and pressing buttons.

"What are you doing?" Amy asks.

"Me? I'm going to blow up the TARDIS." he tells her.

"What?" Rory and Emmie ask together.

"Notice how helpful the Dream Lord was? There was misinformation, red herrings, malice, and I could have done without the limerick. But he was always very keen to make us choose between dream and reality." he says, pushing a lever upwards. The TARDIS shakes a little, turning red. Amy, Rory and Emmie cling to the control column.

"What are you doing?" Amy shouts.

"Doctor, the Dream Lord conceded this isn't the dream!" Rory tells him.

"Yes it is." the Doctor says.

"Doctor. It was two dreams, wasn't it?" Emmie asks.

"Yes, Emmie! See, I keep telling you you're clever!" he says, reaching out and hooking an arm around her neck.

"How can you be sure?" Amy asks.

"Because I know who he is!" the Doctor tells her.

***

"Any questions?" the Doctor asks as he and Emmie inspect something in his hand.

"What's that?" Amy asks, nodding at it.

"A speck of psychic pollen from the candle meadows of Karass don Slava. Must have been hanging around for ages. Fell into the time rotor, heated up and induced a dream state for all of us." as he speaks, he moves towards the door to blow the specks out into space.

"So that was the Dream Lord then? Those little specks? And the Dream Lady, what happened to her?" Rory asks.

"No, no. No. Sorry, wasn't it obvious, the Dream Lord was me." the Doctor says.

"Psychic pollen's a mind parasite. It feeds on the darkness within you, gives it a voice and a sort-of body." Emmie explains.

"I'm 907. It had a lot to go on." the Doctor adds.

"And it fed on us too?" Amy asks.

"Darkness in you pair? It would starve in an instant." the Doctor tells her before grabbing Emmie's wrist. "Rory, a question is about to occur to you, and I think Amy should give you her full attention." he says, simultaneously pushing Amy towards Rory and pulling Emmie towards him.

"Oh. Hello." she says. He's oddly close. But he's not letting her step away, instead poking her temples. "What're you doing?"

"Checking you're alright." he says distractedly.

"I'm fine." Emmie tells him. "Doctor, I'm fine."

"You had another...fit kind of thing. Like you did in the War Rooms."

"I didn't have a fit-"

"Emmie, just listen. While the Dream Lord had put you to sleep in Leadworth, I was awake there, with you. And you woke up. Just for a second, you woke up. And you said something, do you remember what you said?"

"No." Emmie frowns, shaking her head. "I didn't wake up."

"But you did."

"I don't remember that." she tells him. For a short while, while Amy and Rory talk and kiss in the background, the Doctor looks at Emmie.

"Emmie Tate. Are you sure you're alright?" he asks eventually, quietly.

"Yes. I'm fine." she tells him.

"And you'd tell me if something was wrong?"

"Of course I would." she says. The Doctor nods and let go of her, about to step away. But then Emmie grabs him.

"And you'd tell me if something was wrong?" she asks, trying to catch his eye. "Doctor. You'd tell me, wouldn't you?" she asks. It takes him almost too long to answer. Almost. But then he turns her quickly and slings an arm over her shoulders.

"Course I would."

"Doctor, wait." Emmie says, stopping walking, which makes the Doctor stop too. "You trust me, don't you?" she asks, her tone slightly worried as she looks up at him. But the Doctor just smiles.

"With my lives."


	9. The Hungry Earth

**"Behold! Rio!"**

"Nuh-uh." Amy mutters as she steps out of the TARDIS.

"Not really getting the sunshine carnival vibe." Rory says.

"Well, the sun is shining." Emmie points out, optimistic. "And there are birds and...gravestones." 

"Feel that though." the Doctor tells them as he moves around. "What's that?" he asks as he starts bouncing up and down.

"What's what?" Emmie asks, and he grabs her hand so she starts bouncing too, her hair hitting the Doctor in the face.

"Ground feels strange." he tells her, waiting for a reaction from someone. He doesn't get one. "Just me then." he mumbles, no longer bouncing, "Wait...that's weird."

"What's weird?" Rory asks.

"Doctor, stop trying to distract us, we're in the wrong place." Amy says as she walks towards him. The Doctor turns and walks away from her. "Doctor, it's freezing and I've dressed for Rio."

"This skirt's a bit breezy." Emmie adds.

"We are not stopping here." Amy agrees. "Doctor! You listening to me? This is a graveyard, you promised me a beach." she says as she and Rory tramp through the grass, Emmie walking ahead with longer strides than theirs, more used to walking through overgrown grass.

"Blue grass." she hears the Doctor mutter, and she crouches to have a look at the patch of grass. There are patches of this grass all over the graveyard, bluer and longer than the rest. "So, Earth, 2020-ish, ten years in your future. Wrong continent for Rio, I'll admit, but it's not a massive overshoot."

"Doc, I think we're in Britain." Emmie says, pushing her hands on her knees as she stands. The Doctor sends her a funny look, a finger to his lips.

"You weren't meant to say that."

"Yeah, well, I did."

"Why are those people waving at us?" Amy asks suddenly, and Emmie and the Doctor turn to look where she is looking. There are two people on a hill, and they are both waving at the group in the graveyard. Rory lifts his hand to wave back, but Amy gives it a small slap to stop him. Emmie frowns. Though the people are far away, they seem really...familiar.

"Can't be." the Doctor mutters, pulling out a small pair of binoculars. Emmie takes them from him before he has a chance to use them. "Oi!"

"It is." Emmie says, taking the binoculars away from her eyes.

"Let me see." the Doctor says impatiently, taking the binoculars from her. "It's you two." he says to Amy and Rory a moment later.

"No, we're here." Rory tells him as Amy's nose wrinkles in a laugh. "How can we be up there?"

"Ten years in your future, come to relive past glories, I'd imagine." the Doctor says.

"Past glories?" Emmie repeats, her own nose scrunching up at the Doctor's word choice.

"Humans. You're all so nostalgic." he says, looking at Emmie rather than Amy and Rory. Emmie hits his shoulder lightly.

"Shut up."

"Ah, I'm kidding, Em." he tells her. "Sort of." he adds in a mutter. Emmie pokes him. He pokes her back. She reaches a hand up to his hair, which he immediately shields with his hands. She rakes her other hand up through the back of his hair, and he retaliates by sticking both his hands in her hair and shuffling them around.

"We're still together in ten years." Amy says.

"No need to sound so surprised." Rory tells her.

"Hey, let's go and talk to them! We can say hi to Future Us, how cool is that?"

"No!" the Doctor and Emmie say at once, torn away from tormenting each other. "No, best not, really best not." the Doctor adds more calmly, "These things get complicated very quickly and, oh, look! Big mining thing. Love a big mining thing."

"Way better than Rio, Rio doesn't have a big mining thing!" Emmie exclaims sarcastically, gesturing dramatically towards said big mining thing.

"Exactly, Emmie." the Doctor agrees.

"No, I was being sar-"

"We're not going to have a look, are we?" Amy asks as if begging the Doctor to say no. But of course,

"Let's go and have a look!"

***

**Emmie**

"What are we doing?" Rory hisses to me. "We need to catch up with Amy and the Doctor!"

"Something's not right here, Rory. They know it too." I whisper back, nodding to indicate Ambrose, the woman who's walking hand in hand with her son Elliot. She'd been outside the TARDIS when we'd come out from putting Amy's ring away. I'm not quite sure where she's taking us.

"She thinks we're the police, Em!"

"I know. That's useful."

"How-" Rory starts, and stops abruptly. We've been lead to a graveyard. Ambrose turns her head to make sure we're still following her, and then walks in. We follow her to an empty grave. There's a border around the opening that Elliot starts walking on, trying to balance while holding his earphones.

"It's a family plot, see. My Aunt Gladys died six years ago." Ambrose says, "Her husband, Alun, died a few weeks back. He lived in the house two doors down. There's not many of us left up here now."

"Mum, they don't care about that, they want to know about the dead bodies!" Elliot says.

"Bodies?" I ask, crouching a little to be more on Elliot's level, "What, like zombies?" I ask, and he shakes his head.

"Yes, sorry. Well, they always wanted to be buried in the same plot, together. But when we went to bury Uncle Alun, Gladys wasn't there. Gone." Ambrose explains, "Body, coffin, everything."

"What?" Rory asks as I look down into the empty grave.

"Missing bodies, Rory." I say, my hand reaching backwards and tapping his knee.

"The mad thing is, on the surface, the grave was untouched. No signs of it having been messed with." Ambrose tells us.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand." Rory says. I twist my head to look up at him.

"Missing bodies, but no one's touched the graves." I tell him.

"How is that possible?" Ambrose asks, as if we'll have an answer ready. I do the most logical thing. I jump into the grave.

"Em!" Rory says before jumping down after me. We're in there about ten minutes before,

"Sugar?" Elliot asks.

"Sorry?" Rory asks.

"In your tea. Mum's asking."

"One for me, just milk for him, thank you, Elliot." I say.

"There's only one explanation, as far as I can see." Elliot starts, and I can see that we might not get our tea any time soon as he starts wandering around.

"What's that then?" Rory asks.

"The graves eat people." Elliot says simply, "Devour them whole, leaving no trace."

"Not sure about that." Rory says, dismissing this theory.

"They didn't steal the body from above. They couldn't have got in from the side. The only other thing is, they get in from underneath." Elliot says.

"Not very likely though." Rory insists.

"When you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Elliot quips.

"Sherlock Holmes. Clever wee man you are, Elliot." I say, smiling a little.

"I've got the audiobook." he says, almost smiling back. He looks at Rory. "The graves round here eat people." he says firmly before walking away. Rory stares at the muddy ground in front of him again.

"Rory. Rory."

"What?"

"I think we've got to go."

"What?" Rory asks again.

"I've got a feeling. We've got to go find the Doctor."

"Yeah, what we were meant to do twenty minutes ago." Rory says, and I can almost hear him rolling his eyes. I reach up and start pulling myself up and out of the grave. "Em! Careful!"

"Something's wrong." I tell him, turning and holding my hand out to him once I'm back on the ground. "Come on."

***

 **Elliot runs up to me, holding out a big sheet of paper.** I take it from his hands and smile at him.

"That is excellent. Look at this Doctor." I say, turning it to show the Doctor.

"Perfect." the Doctor agrees, "Dyslexia never stopped Da Vince or Einstein, and it's not stopping you."

"Brilliant job, Elliot." I tell him as Elliot goes further up onto his toes to look at the screens.

"I don't understand what you're going to do." he says.

"Two phase plan. First, the sensors and cameras will let us know when something arrives. Second, if something does arrive, I use this," he pulls out his screwdriver, "to send a sonic pulse through that network of devices. A pulse which would temporarily incapacitate most things in the universe." the Doctor explains quickly.

"Knock 'em out. Cool."

"Exactly." I say as the Doctor takes the map and moves around to the other side of the computers.

"Lovely place to grow up, round here." he comments.

"Suppose." Elliot says, "I want to live in a city someday. Soon as I'm old enough, I'll be off."

"I was the same where I grew up." the Doctor tells him.

"So was I." I add in.

"But you both got away?" Elliot asks, and I nod as the Doctor says,

"Yeah."

"Do you ever miss your homes?" Elliot asks, and I look to the Doctor, who has frozen momentarily.

"So much."

"Is it monsters coming?" Elliot asks. The Doctor doesn't answer, and Elliot turns his head to look up at me. "Have you met monsters before?"

"Yeah." I tell him, nodding again.

"You scared of them?"

"No, they're scared of her." the Doctor cuts in before I can say, _yes. Always._

"Will you really get my dad back?" Elliot asks.

"No question." the Doctor answers. But he doesn't really know. Neither of us ever do.

"I left my headphones at home." Elliot says suddenly, starting to walk away. The Doctor doesn't react, but I go after him.

"Elliot!" I call, and he stops and turns. "Do you want me to come with you?" I ask. I'm still not entirely sure what's going to happen, but if I'm with Elliot when it does happen, he has more of a chance of getting out. He thinks for a moment before nodding and saying,

"Alright."

***

 **Time is up.** The sky has gone dark, and the power has failed. The ground has stopped shaking and rumbling, and everyone is in the church, wondering what to do next when Ambrose asks,

"Where's Elliot? Has anyone seen Elliot? Did he come in? Was he in when the door shut? Who counted him back in? Who saw him last?" her voice rises higher with fear with each question as it the horrible realisation dawns on the Doctor.

"I did."

"Where is he?"

"He said he was going to get headphones."

"And you let him go? he was out there on his own?" Ambrose asks, anger creeping in as Tony puts a hand on her shoulder, almost restraining her.

"Doctor, where's Emmie? She's not here." Rory realises. "Did she go with Elliot?"

"I...I don't know-"

"I hope you know!" Ambrose shouts.

"Yes. Yes, she went with him." the Doctor remembers. Ambrose glares at him.

"Well then. At least one of you has a brain." she snaps just as there's a banging on the door.

"Mum! Grandpa Tony, let me in!" Elliot's voice says from the other side.

"Elliot!" Ambrose cries, going for the door.

"Rory!" another voice shouts.

"Emmie!" Rory calls back.

"Doctor, there's something out here, there's something following us!"

"Mum!" Elliot shouts again.

"Push! Push, Elliot." Ambrose tells her son as she pulls desperately at the handle, trying to open the door as Emmie's shoulder thumps into the other side.

"Mum!"

"Doctor!"

And then nothing. Silence as Ambrose, Tony and Rory manage to wrench the door open. They all spill out into the graveyard.

"Where is he? He was here. He was here!" Ambrose cries. "Elliot!" she shouts before taking off through the gravestones.

"Ambrose, don't go running off!" the Doctor calls as Tony runs after her. 

"Doctor, where's Em, she had Elliot." Rory says.

"I don't know."

A minute later, a wail echoes through the graveyard. Elliot's headphones lie next to a grave.


	10. Cold Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's really late when I'm reading over this, so if I've made any mistakes please point them out to me

**Emmie**

**I can see Amy and a man I assume is Elliot's father, Mo, on the other side of the room.** There's some humanoid thing I can't identify, green and reptilian, moving towards Amy holding something sharp and syringe-like.

"Don't you come near me with that!" Amy says it sharply, but I can see the fear in her face as she struggles. The green thing presses a button and starts to speak as if something is recording it. It sounds male, but I don't know the species well enough to know the genders.

"From the clothing, the human female appears to be more resistant to the cold than the male."

"I dressed for Rio!" Amy shouts.

"Leave her alone, you got me!" Mo calls at the same time as I shout too. The green creature hardly turns his head, pressing another button that sends gas creeping towards me again. Gas that knocked Amy and Mo out. Gas that keeps me awake, sends needles of pain through my head. Amy and I yell at the same time, as metal cuffs close down over her wrists.

"Decontamination complete." the reptilian man says quietly, "Commencing dissection." he adds, aiming the sharp silver instrument in his hand at Amy's chest as I yell again.

 _Area Seventeen Incursion. Species diagnostic requested._ some disembodied voice echoes from the ceiling. The words repeat over again as the green man leaves hurriedly.

"Yeah, and...stay out!" Amy calls rather uncertainly after him. A strange groan escapes me as pain moves down from my head and into my chest. The Doctor must be feeling this, he has to come and find us. I can't think of a way to get us out of this. Amy's face pops up in front of mine a minute later, and my wrists are free in an instant.

"How..." I start before seeing the small circular device the lizard man had been holding, "You nicked it. Fantastic."

"Okay?" Amy asks. As I step down from the chamber, the fingers of gas lose their grip on me, the pain recedes and I nod. "Let's go then."

***

 **Okay, so the escape-slash-rescue hadn't worked as well as we'd hoped.** We've been cuffed, the chains linked to chains on pillars, holding us there.

"Doc, care to explain who these people are?" I ask rather pointedly, pulling at the chains in an attempt to get my hands through the cuffs.

"Lizard men!" Amy exclaims.

"Homo reptilia. They occupied the planet before humans." the Doctor replies. I can't see his face from where I am, but his eyebrows have probably disappeared into his hair. Not that he has much eyebrow this regeneration, "Now they want it back."

"After they wipe out the human race." Nasreen adds from where she is on the other side of the pillar from me.

"Right. Preferred it when I didn't know, to be honest." Amy tells them. The soldiers move to stand in a line with their blasters, Restac, their leader pacing, weaving in between them before stopping at the head of the long table to stand with her back to us.

"Why are they waiting? What do you think they're going to do to us?" Nasreen asks.

"Well, I would hazard a guess that 'execution' means they're going to kill us." I tell her as something green flickers into life in the air. If I twist my head I can see people. Rory, Ambrose and Tony.

"Who is the ape leader?" Restac asks. I can hear quiet voices. "Who speaks for the apes?" Restac demands. More quiet voices, and then Rory, louder,

_I speak for the...humans. Some of us, anyway._

"Do you understand who we are?"

_Sort of. A bit. Not really._

"We have ape hostages." Restac tells him. I'm not sure what changes, but apparently the others can see us now.

 _Doctor! Amy!_ Rory shouts, moving closer.

 _Mo!_ Ambrose cries, _Mo, are you okay?_

"I'm fine, love. I've found Elliot, I'm bringing him home!" Mo calls to her.

 _Amy, I thought I'd lost you._ Rory says, clearly relieved.

"What, cause I was sucked into the ground? You're so clingy." Amy says, and I can almost hear her rolling her eyes.

 _Hang on, where's Emmie?_ Rory asks.

"Right here." I call, kicking out a leg and wiggling it around in the air. "You see me?"

_Yeah. Great, you're okay._

"Tony Mack!" Nasreen shouts.

 _Having fun down there?_ Tony asks.

"Not to interrupt, but just a quick reminder to stay calm." the Doctor says.

"Show me Alaya." Restac demands. There is silence on the other end. "Show me and release here, immediately, unharmed, or we kill your friends one by one."

 _No!_ Ambrose shifts forward.

 _Ambrose._ Rory warns.

"Steady now, everyone!" the Doctor calls.

 _Ambrose, stop it._ Tony hisses, trying to pull his daughter back.

 _Get off me, Dad._ she snaps, breaking away from him, _We didn't start this!_

"Let Rory deal with this, Ambrose, eh?" the Doctor says. She ignores him.

 _We're not doing what you say anymore. Now give me back my family._

"No." Restac says, sounding equally angry now, "Execute the girls." she orders. In a second, Amy and I are being dragged to the front, blasters aimed at us. People are shouting, Rory and Amy and the Doctor. All of the soldiers are aiming at us at once. My fingers curl tight around the cuffs.

"Amy!"

"Rory!"

"Don't do this! Emmie!"

"No!"

"Fire!" Restac orders.

"Stop!" a new voice bellows as the science lizard from before walks back into the room with another lizard man dressed in odd robes. "You want to start a war while the rest of us sleep, Restac?" the robed lizard asks. He sounds older than the other homo reptilia. Some kind of elder, perhaps.

"The apes are attacking us!" Restac tells him.

"You're our protector, not our commander, Restac. Unchain them."

"I do not recognise your authority at this time, Eldane."

"Well, then you must shoot me." the elder says. Restac marches down to him and the science lizard, and I can hear them hissing to each other but I can't quite make out the words. When I look up where the green image of Rory, Ambrose and Tony had been, it's gone. Once I'm unchained, I punch the Doctor's shoulder.

"What's that for?" he asks, rubbing his shoulder as I feel the dull pain in my own.

"Some kind of rescue." I say.

"Some kind of escape." he counters.

***

 **"Here they are."** the Doctor says as Rory appears in the doorway. He lifts his hand in a wave, and Rory waves back as Ambrose follows him. Mo lets Elliot run to his mother and hug her.

"Rory!" Amy calls in that way that seems to add an a between the r and the y. I slide off the table as Tony follows the other two, carrying something covered in an orange blanket. Something suspiciously body-shaped.

"Something's wrong." I mumble.

"Doctor, what's he carrying?" Amy asks, all the joy gone from her voice.

"No." the Doctor says quietly, realising what the thing wrapped in blanket must be, "Don't do this, tell me you didn't do this." Toby lowers the blanket to the ground. It is wrapped around Alaya's body. She's dead. "What did you do?"

"It was me." Ambrose admits. But she doesn't sound guilty or sorry. She sounds almost...proud. "I did it."

"Mum?" Elliot says it unsurely, breaking away from his mother.

"I just wanted you back." she says, trying to hold onto him. But he pushes her hands away and moves back towards his dad. Mo doesn't look like he can believe what his wife has done. Ambrose has ruined all chances we had at avoiding war.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know. You have to believe me, they're better than this." the Doctor tries, turning to Eldane.

"This is our planet!" Ambrose cries.

"This was our chance!" I counter, rather angrily.

"Leave us alone." she says stubbornly.

"In future, when you talk about this, you tell people there was a chance, but you were so much less than the best of humanity." the Doctor spits out, stalking towards Ambrose. And of course, this is the moment Restac's army marches in, and we are surrounded.

"My sister." Restac starts when she walks in. Then she stops as she sees the covered body on the ground. She knows in a second what has happened. She kneels beside the body, lifts the blanket to look at Alaya's face. An odd, warbling, sad sound escapes Restac before she hardens again and looks up. "And you want us to trust these apes, Doctor?"

"One woman. She was scared for her family, she's not typical." he starts.

"I think she is." Restac stands, turns to look at Ambrose.

"One person let us down. But there are billions or peaceful humans up there. I was right here, you were building an alliance, it could work!" I try, my voice rising ever so slightly.

"It's too late for that." Ambrose blurts.

"Why?" the Doctor and I ask at the same time.

"Our drill is set to start burrowing again in," she digs in her pocket for a stopwatch, "fifteen minutes."

"What?" Nasreen asks disbelievingly. My brain has processed the words, but I'm going over them again. _They're going to destroy the city._

"What choice did I have?" Tony asks. "They had Elliot."

"Don't do this, don't call their bluff." the Doctor says.

"Don't think it's a bluff." I whisper as Ambrose says,

"Let us go back. And you promise to never come to the surface ever again. We'll walk away, leave you alone." she's trying to bargain now, but she's just digging herself deeper and deeper. I can see Restac's anger building, ready to explode-

"Execute her!"

People dive at each other as guns go off, as the Doctor shouts for everyone to go to the lab. He stays, so I do too. The blasters are backfiring as he points the sonic at them. One by one. Too slow.

"Give me that." I say, grabbing it and thrusting it towards the ceiling. _Work with me._ Sparks fly in all directions, all of the blasters incapacitated at once. I chuck the sonic back to the Doctor, who's staring.

"How did you do that?" he asks.

"Just run!" I tell him, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him with me.

***

 **I run back to the lab with Amy.** The Doctor had stayed behind to chat, as per usual. We're running short on time to get back to the surface. Tony has decided to stay down here in the hope they can cure his sting. Ambrose, Mo and Elliot have gone for the TARDIS with Rory.

"Doctor. Really-super-squeaky-bum time." I tell him as he hugs Nasreen. I look at her as she looks at me. "You're staying, aren't you?" I ask softly, and she nods. I smile a little and hold out my hand. I'm not that big on hugs. She shakes my hand and holds on as I say, "Good luck, Nasreen Chaudhry." the Doctor takes hold of my hand, grabs Amy, and all three of us run from the lab, looking for the TARDIS.

"No questions, just get in!" he shouts when we reach it, patting his pockets. "Emmie-"

"Keys." I say simply, handing my own to him.

"Ta." he mutters, unlocking the door and saying to Mo, Elliot and Ambrose, "And yes, I know it's big. Ambrose, sickbay up the stairs, left then left again, get yourself fixed up. Come on!" he calls the last two words to Amy and Rory as he turns from the door, "Five minutes and counting..." his voice trails away as he sees what I see.

"The crack in the wall." it's there. Right there, spilling bright light onto the ground.

"Not here. Not now...It's getting wider." the Doctor mumbles.

"The crack in my bedroom wall." Amy says.

"It was at the Byzantium, we saw it." I tell the Doctor even though he already knows that.

"All through the universe. Rips in the continuum. Some sort of space-time cataclysm. An explosion, maybe."

"Doctor, don't get to close." I tell him even as he crouches in front of it.

"Big enough to put cracks in the universe. But what?" the Doctor goes on, talking quickly. The stopwatch in Amy's hand beeps.

"Four minutes fifty, we have to go." she tells him urgently.

"The Angels laughed when I didn't know. Prisoner Zero knew, everybody knows except me!" the Doctor says as my hand goes to the collar of his jacket.

"We can think about that in the TARDIS, come on!" I try, pulling at his collar. But he's got a handkerchief in his hand, waddling towards the crack and pulling me with him.

"But where there's an explosion, there's shrapnel."

"Doctor, you can't put your hand in there!" Rory tells him.

"Why not?" the Doctor asks, almost as if a child would. And so he sticks his hand in. I feel the pain before he starts yelling, the feeling as if my arm is burning, and I yell too as I hold it against my chest, eyes squeezing shut. Rory shouts at my name the same time as Amy shouts for the Doctor.

"I've got something." he calls.

"What?" Amy asks. He manages to pull it out, falling onto the ground.

"I don't know."

"Doctor." I hear Rory say. I hear gasping, and look in the direction of it. Restac, pushing herself up, seemingly unable to get to her feet.

"She was there when the gas started. She must have been poisoned." Amy says.

"You!" Restac starts.

"Into the TARDIS. Now!" I say, moving towards Amy to push her towards the TARDIS. Rory, I know will listen. Amy is always harder to convince. I don't quite realise that Restac has her blaster aimed at me until I hear Rory shouting my name, feel his hands shoving me to the side. I only know what has happened when Amy screams. Restac has shot him.

"Oh my God. Oh my God, Rory." I blurt, turning back to him as he lands on the ground, noises of pain spilling from him.

"Rory, can you hear me?" the Doctor asks.

"Rory, you idiot!" I splutter, forgetting Restac again for the moment as the Doctor waves the sonic over him.

"I don't understand." Rory says, quite clearly. Amy shushes him.

"Don't talk. Doctor, is he okay? We have to get him into the TARDIS." she says.

"We were on the hill." Rory forces out, "I can't die here."

"Don't say that."

"You're so beautiful." Rory tells Amy before his face screws up with pain again. "I'm sorry." then his face is calm again. His eyes unmoving under their lids. I can't hear him breathing.

"Doctor. Help him." Amy forces out, still looking at Rory. I don't know what the Doctor's doing. I'm looking at Rory too. He was trying to save me. This is my fault.

"Amy, move away from the light, if it touches you you'll be wiped from history." the Doctor says, oddly calm. Something hits me. The time energy. From the cracks. If the light catches you, you never exist. Rory will never exist.

"No, Doctor, we have to get him into the TARDIS." I say, but he doesn't seem to hear me, telling Amy to move again.

"No! I am not leaving him." she says stoutly, angrily, "We have to help him."

"The light's already around him, we can't help him." the Doctor tries to explain.

"I'm not leaving him."

"You have to."

"No!" Amy roars, even as the Doctor pulls her to her feet, dragging her to the TARDIS as she yells at him, sobbing. For a single moment, I'm on my own with Rory as Amy screams in the TARDIS. I try to memorise his face, every detail. He died to save me. I have to remember him, no matter what the blasted crack wants.

"I'm sorry, Rory. I'm so sorry." it's all I manage to get out before I feel the Doctor's hand on my shoulder. "Please. Can't we take him into the TARDIS? Please, Doctor." I can feel him pulling me up, like he did Amy. I'm not struggling. I stare at Rory until the doors of the TARDIS close in front of me. I can hear Amy yelling, hitting the door that the Doctor has sealed shut. But I just slide down the door until my knees are by my chest. I lift my head when Amy leaves the door. We can see Rory on one of the round things, threads of light wrapping around him.

"That light, if his body's absorbed I'll forget him. He'll never have existed. You can't let that happen." Amy says. The Doctor ignores her and pulls a lever. Lifting off.

"What are you doing?" Amy and I yell it at the same time.

"No. No! We can't just leave him there, no!" the Doctor's managed to grab Amy. She's stopped hitting him, breaking down into tears again.

"Keep him in your mind. Don't forget him. If you forget him, you lose him forever." he tells her.

"On the Byzantium I still remembered the Clerics because I am a time traveller now, you said!"

"They weren't part of your world, this is different, this is your own history changing."

"Don't tell me it's going to be okay, you have to make it okay!" Amy is yelling, the Doctor's voice wobbling. I am silent. Sitting, quiet. Trying to remember Rory as more than a dead body on the floor. But I think of him and all I see is his face, eyes closed, unmoving.

"It's going to be hard, but you can do it, Amy." the Doctor tells her. "Tell me about Rory. Tell me and Emmie about Rory." he's moving her, sitting her down on the floor next to me and crouching in front of us. "Fantastic Rory, funny Rory, gorgeous Rory. Amy, listen to me, do exactly as I say. Amy, please. Keep concentrating. You can do this." the Doctor says. I can see the concentration on her face, then,

"I can't."

"You can. You can. _We_ can." I tell her, my hand going out and curling around her fingers.

"We can still save his memory. Come on, Amy, please." the Doctor begs. She's crying again, tears sliding over her cheeks. "Amy, please. Don't let anything distract you."

"Remember Rory, Amy. Keep remembering him." I tell her, forcing myself to picture Rory in my mind as if that will help her.

"Rory is only alive in your memory. You must keep hold of him." the Doctor tells her.

"Don't let anything distract you." we say together. There's a loud bang, and all three of us fall to the floor. Right in front of me is the small red box. Amy's engagement ring. Could it possibly have been only this morning Rory and I had placed it on the console? He'd been so worried she would lose it. My hand goes out and I grab it.

And then I hear Amy's voice.

"What were you saying?"


End file.
